Washington: India, China and other countries that have been cutting their oil imports from Iran have reached a point where it is "very very difficult" to reduce any further without seriously impacting their economies, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has told lawmakers.
"What we did is we put in place a pause for the few nations -- China, India, South Korea, Japan -- there are a number of nations who are working with us very closely in sanctions enforcement who have been reducing their consumption of oil now over this period of time," Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"They have reached a point where it is very, very difficult for them to further reduce without serious impact on global economy and their economy," he said at the Congressional hearing on Iran.
Due to sanctions on Iran, India had cut imports from the Persian Gulf nation from 21 million tonnes to about 18 million tonnes in 2011-12 and to 13.1 million tonnes in 2012-13. This year imports are planned at 11 million tonnes.
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