A proposed oil-for-goods swap between Iran and Russia has been put on hold after objections were raised by the US, according to Reuters.
Reuters had previously revealed that the two countries were negotiating a $1.5 billion per month oil-for-goods deal that would have enabled Iran to significantly increase its oil exports.
U.S. under-secretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, told a congressional hearing the possibility of a deal was raised at the highest level to ensure it did not go ahead.
“My own sense of this is that after a fair amount of clarification about this matter, nothing will move forward at this time,” she told Reuters.
“We are very crystal clear that anything like such an agreement between Russia and Iran might have potentially sanctionable action and would likely create tremendous risk within the P5+1 which would make coming to a comprehensive agreement all the more difficult if not impossible,” she told Reuters.
