The U.S. Treasury has decided not to renew the waiver on sanctions for Iranian oil that it had introduced as a response to the surge in global oil prices caused by the Iran war.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a White House briefing on the 15th (local time), "We will not renew the general license for Russian oil, and we will not renew the 'general license' for Iranian oil either." A general license is a system that temporarily permits the purchase of petroleum products from sanctioned countries.

Originally, the United States had imposed sanctions to prevent other countries from purchasing Russian and Iranian oil. However, as the Middle East war began and a fuel supply crunch ensued, the United States temporarily eased the sanctions last month.

Bessent said, "The ones (oil) that were at sea before March 11 have already all been used up." Earlier, on the 20th of last month, the United States announced a 30-day waiver of sanctions for Iranian oil that was shipped before March 11.

After the steps to ease sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil were implemented, both the ruling and opposition parties criticized the Donald Trump administration, because it could help supply war funds to Russia, which is continuing its invasion of Ukraine.

Regarding Russia's gains from the temporary easing of sanctions, Bessent said, "It could be $2 billion (about 3 trillion won). We don't know." He added, "Think of other circumstances where oil prices shot up to $150 per barrel (about 220,000 won). They would have earned far more. That oil was headed to China," and justified the temporary easing by saying, "Whether or not we supplied that oil to our allies, we contribute to stabilizing oil prices."

Bessent also said that the U.S. military's blockade measures on ships traveling to and from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz would affect China. He said, "China has been purchasing more than 90% of Iranian oil, which corresponds to about 8% of China's energy demand," and added, "We believe that China's purchases will be halted due to the blockade of the strait."

He continued, "Two Chinese banks have received letters from the Treasury. I won't disclose specific bank names, but we told them that 'if we can prove that Iranian funds have flowed into accounts at those banks, we can impose secondary sanctions.'" Secondary sanctions impose penalties on third parties that transacted with designated targets and are also called 'third-party sanctions.'

On when U.S. gasoline prices, which have surged above $4 per gallon (about 5,900 won), might come down, Bessent said, "I am optimistic that between June 20 and September 20 we will again see gas stations selling gasoline for $3 per gallon (about 4,430 won)."

He also said that during this week's Annual Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he has been meeting with finance ministers from various Middle Eastern countries, adding, "They all say that once the Strait of Hormuz is opened, they can resume oil shipments within a week," and predicted that international oil prices would return to stability soon.

Bessent said the previous day, "We announced an 'economic fury operation' against Iran," adding, "For more than a year, we have been exerting maximum pressure by cutting off the inflow of funds to the Iranian government and tracking the accounts of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)."

He added, "One of the fatal mistakes Iran committed was bombing its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) neighbors, and those countries are now willing to become much more transparent about the flow of funds or to probe more deeply the funds in their domestic banking systems," he claimed.

Bessent also said, "We have notified companies and other countries that 'if you purchase Iranian oil or if Iranian funds are in that country's banks, we will impose secondary sanctions,'" and emphasized, "Iran needs to know that the financial blow will be at a level equivalent to what we have seen in our military operations."

As part of the 'economic fury operation,' the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions that day on individuals, companies, and vessels operating within the network of Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and military adviser to the Supreme Leader, who was removed by the United States during the Iran war.

OFAC said, "Shamkhani leads a multibillion-dollar Iran-Russia oil sales empire that enriches a family connected to the very top of the Iranian regime at the expense of the Iranian people," and described the day's action as "the single largest measure taken to date since the Trump administration resumed its maximum pressure campaign against Iran."