White House national security advisor John Bolton on Tuesday dismissed an EU plan for a special payments plan to circumvent US sanctions against Iranian oil sales and pressed the SWIFT global payments messaging system to rethink dealing with Tehran.
Speaking at a conference, Bolton also said the United States would be “aggressive and unwavering” in enforcing economic sanctions on Iran that are resuming after Washington withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He said the United States would not allow the European Union or anyone else to undermine them.
“The European Union is strong on rhetoric and weak on follow-through,” Bolton said. “We will be watching the development of this structure that doesn’t exist yet and has no target date to be created. We do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody else.”
Bolton also said the United States expected Iran’s oil customers to slash their imports of Iranian crude to zero by November 4 before US sanctions kick back in on November 5. US officials have sent mixed signals on whether the oil purchases needed to be eliminated by then or simply significantly reduced.
