Washington: India and other major Iranian oil importing countries have got six months relief from reducing their import after the Islamic Republic agreed to curb parts of its disputed nuclear programme under a landmark deal.

"What the Joint Plan of Action provides is that we`ll pause efforts to further reduce Iran`s crude oil sales to Iran`s existing customers so that, what had been the requirement to continue to significantly reduce, will be essentially held in abeyance during the six-month period of this agreement," a senior administration official said on Monday.
India had slashed import of crude oil from Iran by over 26.5 per cent in the financial year ended March 31, 2013 as US and European sanctions made it difficult to ship oil from the Persian Gulf nation.
"They cannot increase their amount of oil that they`re importing, but they don`t need to reduce," the official said on condition of anonymity.
His comments came hours after Iran and six world powers reached an agreement under which Tehran agreed to curb parts of its nuclear programme for six months in exchange for modest relief from international sanctions. Iran would start scaling back its nuclear programme from January 20.
In November last year, Iran signed a six-month Joint Plan of Action with P5+1 group - the US, UK, Russia, China, and France plus Germany - under which it agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear programme in return for the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and modest relief from sanctions.
"That will hold Iran`s oil exports at around a million barrels per day, which is down about 60 per cent from where it began at the beginning of 2012 when we embarked on the effort to drive down Iran`s oil sales, driving it down to about 2.5 million barrels today ? a day to now about 1 million barrels per day," the official explained when asked if the countries importing oil from Iran would have to continue to reduce it further to avoid American sanctions in this regard. According to the official, once the IAEA has confirmed Iran is implementing its commitments, in return the P5+1 has committed to do a series of measures on the first day of the implementation.
This includes suspend the implementation of sanctions on Iran`s petrochemical exports and Iran`s imports of goods and services for its automotive manufacturing sector; and suspend sanctions on Iran`s import and export of gold and other precious metals with significant limitations that prevent Iran from using its restricted assets overseas to pay for these purchases.

The P5+1 will also begin to process expeditiously license applications for the supply of spare parts and services, including inspection services for the safety of flight of Iran`s civil aviation sector.
It will further facilitate the establishment of a financial channel intended to support humanitarian trade to Iran, including the supply of medical services; and to facilitate payments for UN obligations and tuition payments for Iranian students studying abroad; and modify the thresholds for EU internal procedures for the authorisation of permitted financial transactions, the official said.
"The P5+1 has also committed to take certain actions to facilitate Iran`s access to USD 4.2 billion in restricted Iranian funds on a set schedule at regular intervals throughout the six-month period of the Joint Plan of Action," the official said. "Access to a portion of these funds will be linked to Iran`s progress in completing the dilution process for 20 per cent enriched uranium.
Iran will not have access to the final installment of the 4.2 billion until the last day of the six-month period," the official added.
However, the official insisted that the core architecture of the US and international sanctions remains in place.
"We will continue to vigorously enforce those sanctions as well as sanctions that relate to Iran`s support for international terrorism and its gross human rights abuses; and second, while we have committed that we will not impose new nuclear-related sanctions on Iran during the period of the Joint Plan of Action...
"If Iran fails to meet its commitments under the Joint Plan, we will move to increase our sanctions, working closely with Congress to do so," the official said.