US lifts sanctions on Iranian oil at sea for one month

The United States has announced the temporary lifting of sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil stranded at sea in an effort to cool down soaring global crude prices.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the temporary measure will make available 140 million barrels of Iranian oil to global markets.
“This temporary, short-term authorisation is strictly limited to oil that is already in transit and does not allow new purchases or production,” Bessent said in a long post on X.
The price of Brent crude has witnessed sharp swings from roughly USD 70 per barrel before the war began to as high as USD 119.50 this week.
“Today, the Department of the Treasury is issuing a narrowly tailored, short-term authorisation permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea,” Bessent said.
The US official claimed that at present, sanctioned Iranian oil is being hoarded by China on the cheap.
By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran, he said.
“In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against Tehran to keep the price down as we continue Operation Epic Fury,” Bessent said.
The pause on sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on vessels begins Friday and is set to end on April 19.
Petrol prices have increased from USD 3 a gallon in the US before the war began to USD 3.99 on Saturday.
“This temporary, short-term authorisation is strictly limited to oil that is already in transit and does not allow new purchases or production,” Bessent said.
Further, Iran will have difficulty accessing any revenue generated, and the United States will continue to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and its ability to access the international financial system, he said.
So far, the Trump Administration has been working to bring around 440 million additional barrels of oil to the global market, undercutting Iran’s ability to leverage its disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the US official said.
Iran says its nuclear facility has been hit
Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike on Saturday, the official Iranian news agency Mizan reported. There was no radiation leakage, it said, as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
Natanz, Iran’s main enrichment site, was hit in the first week of the war and several buildings appeared damaged, according to satellite images. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog had said that “no radiological consequence” was expected from that earlier strike.
The nuclear facility, located nearly 220 kilometres (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, had been targeted by Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025, and by the United States.
The strike comes a day after US President Donald Trump said he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the US is sending three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the region.
Trump’s post Friday on social media followed an Iranian threat to attack recreational and tourist sites worldwide and another day of the airstrikes and drone and missile attacks that have engulfed the region.
The mixed messages from the United States came after another climb in oil prices plunged the country’s stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement it was lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The three-week-old war has shown no signs of abating, with Israel saying Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, which is home to major oil installations.
Israel threatens surge in attacks on Iran
Israel’s defence minister threatened a surge in attacks against Iran on Saturday, and Britain condemned Iran for targeting a joint UK-US base in the Indian Ocean as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia air base — located about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) from Iran — suggested Tehran has in its stockpile missiles that can go far further than it had previously acknowledged.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, an official Iranian news agency reported, saying there was no radiation leakage.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”
He spoke shortly after fragments from an Iranian missile slammed into an empty kindergarten near Tel Aviv. Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani posted a video on X of the kindergarten building; no casualties were reported as the place was empty at the time.
Overnight and into the morning, Tehran, Iran’s capital, saw heavy airstrikes, residents said. In Iraq, a drone struck the intelligence service headquarters in Baghdad, killing an officer. No group immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, home to major oil installations. No injuries or damage were reported.
The attacks — and threats of more to come — indicate the Iran war shows no sign of abating. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo news service on Friday that Iran wanted “not a cease-fire, but a complete, comprehensive and lasting end to the war.”
22 countries urge
Iran to cease attacks
Twenty-two countries on Saturday urged Iran to cease attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Australia have condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
“The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.