US exempts Japan, 10 in Europe from Iran sanctions

摘要

Washington—The US March 20 exempted 10European countries and Japan from the latestround of Iranian sanctions aimed at financialinstitutions after determining that the coun-tries have “significantly reduced” their pur-chases of Iranian crude oil.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Bel-gium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany,Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain,the UK and Japan have sufficiently reducedtheir crude purchases from Iran. As a result,financial institutions based in those countrieswill not face sanctions that were passed lastDecember as part of the National DefenseAuthorization Act.