Chairman of Iran Action Group at the U.S state department said that the United States will continue to impose sanctions and double the economic pressure on Iran.

In an interview with an Egyptian channel, Hook once again confirmed that the United States is not planning on extending the waivers of exemption from U.S oil sanctions against Iran. When the new round of sanctions began in November 2018, The United States issue waivers of exemption from sanctions for eight countries. India, China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Italy, Greece, and Taiwan were exempted from sanctions for six months until they can replace their oil supplier.

In a press conference yesterday, Hook provided a report of the sanction process and announced that out of the eight exempted countries, three have reduced their oil import from Iran to zero. He did not mention which countries but said that overall 23 countries have stopped buying oil from Iran.

Since the beginning of sanctions in November, Iran’s oil export has reduced over 50 percent and it is now down to near 1 million and 100 thousand barrels a day.

With the continued sanction of Iran's oil and the unrest in Venezuela, the price of oil is currently on the rise.