Official: UAE complying with Iran sanctions ‘as it is published by the United States’

The United Arab Emirates is fully complying with the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran earlier this month, despite what it costs the country in trade, a UAE economy ministry official said Monday.

“We are implementing the sanctions,” Abdullah al-Saleh, undersecretary for foreign trade and industry, told Reuters.

Al-Saleh said the UAE is enforcing the sanctions “as it is published by the United States.”

{mosads}He added that relevant authorities would ensure compliance with the sanctions.

Al-Saleh said the move would cost the country in its trade with Iran.

He said that trade is expected to decline with Iran this year and the next, after already falling to $17 billion in 2017 from a peak of $20 billion in 2013.

The U.S. has threatened those who continue doing business with Iran with economic repercussions.

America has even said that the noncompliant may lose access to the U.S. market.

It has, however, given eight temporary exemptions to countries to keep buying Iranian oil.

“We expect to issue some temporary allotments to eight jurisdictions, but only because they have demonstrated significant reductions in crude oil and cooperation on many other fronts and have made important moves toward getting to zero crude oil importation,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this month.

Pompeo said that none of the waivers are going to the European Union, which has balked at the U.S. sanctioning of Tehran.