Anchor: The U.S. has announced that it will no longer grant sanctions waivers to any country importing Iranian oil. With Washington implementing its maximum pressure campaign on Tehran, the move is likely to strike a blow to South Korea, a major importer of Iranian oil.
Lee Bo-kyung has this story.
 
Report: 
 
[Sound bite: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo]
"Today I am announcing that we will no longer grant any exemptions. We’re going to zero – going to zero across the board.”
 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced an end to temporary exemptions granted last year to eight buyers of Iranian oil.
 
South Korea is one of the importers, along with Japan, China, India, Turkey, Italy, Greece and Taiwan.
 
Pompeo warned any nation interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of caution, stressing that the risks are simply not going to be worth the benefits. 
 
[Sound bite: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo]
"The goal remains simple: to deprive the outlaw regime of the funds it has used to destabilize the Middle East for four decades, and incentivize Iran to behave like a normal country." 
 
While denying the Iranian regime its principal source of revenue, Pompeo assured that the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three of the world’s great energy producers, are committed to ensuring that global oil markets remain adequately supplied.
 
However, Washington's decision hit global markets and caused prices of Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, to rise to nearly six month highs.  
 
Last year, the Trump administration granted six-month waivers to eight countries after the U.S. withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran. The exemption is set to expire on May second. 
 
Iran's biggest customer, China, denounced the U.S. move. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused Washington of going beyond its jurisdiction, saying that all of China's dealings with Iran are legitimate and transparent.  

The South Korean government said it will do its best to explain its position to the U.S. and receive a waiver extension before the current exemption expires, as the country relies heavily on Iranian condensate to produce petrochemical products.  
Lee Bo-kyung, KBS World Radio News.