It looks like it will be hard for South Korea and the seven other countries to get an extension for their exemptions on U.S. sanctions on Iran.
A South Korean foreign affairs source said,.... that the U.S. has toughened its stance and is not looking to excuse anyone from the sanctions.
And even if it does,... the source said,.... the amount of crude oil imports will have to be cut dramatically.
He added that this comes as the U.S. sanctions worked better than expected on Iran while there hasn't been much impact on global crude oil prices.
However Seoul says,.... it will continue asking the U.S. for an exemption,... especially since it's not importing crude oil, but condensate, or ultralight oil,... which is technically not the target of U.S. sanctions.
The current exemption is to end on May 3rd.