Brian Hook, the Special Representative for Iran and the head of Iran Action Group at the U.S state department says that during the past several months, the United States has been able to bring Iran’s oil export down over 1.5 million barrels a day, and it is now planning on bringing the remaining one million barrels down to zero.

Hook told Bloomberg News that these sanctions are imposed to change Iran’s behavior and end the “proxy wars” that Iran is engaged in across the middle east.

He stated in his press conference that Iran’s oil export this year will drop to zero.

On Monday, Mike Pompeo announced that the sanction waivers for the eight customers of Iran’s oil will not be extended.

After this announcement, Saudi Arabia and Iraq announced that they will replace Iran’s oil in the market, and they will not allow the world oil market to lose its balance.

Turkey’s opposition and South Korea’s persistence

Turkey has voiced its disapproval of the United States’ decision and called it immoral and against WTO regulations. The foreign minister of Turkey stated that it is difficult for his country to find replacement oil providers.

South Korean foreign ministry announced that they will continue to negotiate with the United States to get a waiver.

India and Japan: No problem

India which had previously insisted on the exemption has announced that it has no problem finding a new oil provider. However, Iran’s state-owned Fars News claimed that the value of Rupee has dropped due to this decision. Japan’s minister of economy has also announced that the country will not face any serious issue without Iran’s oil.

The eight countries exempted from U.S oil sanctions on Iran for six months were Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, Japan, China, South Korea, India, and Greece.