LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The U.K. government has delayed some new sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to shelter Britons from the cost-of-living squeeze triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Iran war.<\/p>\n
A trade license that came into effect Wednesday permits the import of Russian oil that has been refined into jet fuel and diesel in third countries such as India and Turkey.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Iran\u2019s retaliatory grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil usually passes, has sent fuel prices soaring around the world and sparked concerns about a shortage of jet fuel.<\/p>\n
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the British government of \u201cchoosing to buy dirty Russian oil.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government is phasing in a package of sanctions announced in October and has issued a \u201ctargeted short-term\u201d license for the refined products to protect British consumers in a volatile situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, these are new sanctions being phased in. This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever,\u201d he said in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n
The licenses have no end date, but the government said they would be reviewed regularly.<\/p>\n
Britain has been one of Ukraine\u2019s strongest allies since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022, and the government insists its sanctions against Russia remain among the toughest in the world.<\/p>\n
But lawmaker Emily Thornberry, who chairs Parliament\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Ukrainians would \u201cfeel very let down\u201d by the move. She said Ukraine\u2019s allies should keep squeezing Russia\u2019s oil industry because it \u201cis absolutely crippling their economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. has also eased Russian sanctions. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended a 30-day sanctions waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil shipments already at sea.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, finance ministers from the U.S., Britain and the other Group of Seven wealthy nations issued a joint statement reaffirming \u201cour unwavering commitment to continue to impose severe costs on Russia in response to its continued aggression against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The U.K. government has delayed some new sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to shelter Britons from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,2318,4639,1449,12172,21088,484,8883,3969,21090,21092,21089,523,21091,343],"class_list":["post-41853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-british-government","tag-fuel-price","tag-iran-war","tag-jet-fuel","tag-new-sanction","tag-russia","tag-russian-oil","tag-strait","tag-strong-ally","tag-third-country","tag-trade-license","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-ally-britain","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116607489395627668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}