Britain seeks advice to get around sanctions on Iran

Britain is seeking ways to avoid US sanctions on Iran, The Times understands.

Foreign Office and Treasury officials have met their Japanese counterparts to discuss the sanctions on Tehran, which were reimposed by President Trump after he withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

That deal had eased financial and economic sanctions on the Iranian regime in exchange for it limiting its controversial nuclear energy programme, which the West maintained was designed to build a nuclear bomb.

Tokyo has been consulted by UK officials because of its record of independently signing oil deals with Iran and handling insurance contracts during past sanctions eras on the nation.

Japan continues to import Iranian crude oil and is reportedly talking to Washington about avoiding adverse impacts from Mr Trump’s move, despite his warning that waivers would not be granted.

The UK is looking to secure similar opt-outs from Iranian sanctions for oil imports, tanker insurance and banking, according to a senior Whitehall source. The US pulled out of the multilateral Iran deal in May, with the announcement that sanctions would be reimposed on Iran and, crucially for Britain, any foreign companies trading with it.

A rift has opened between Europe and the US over the deal, as European leaders have vowed to keep it alive. Britain was instrumental in negotiating the settlement, which is seen in Whitehall as good for the UK economy and business.

The new sanctions present a major challenge for the Rhum gas field that lies 240 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, which is half owned by a subsidiary of the Iranian state-controlled national oil company and half owned by the British oil and gas company BP.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, met Steve Mnuchin, the US treasury secretary, at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires last month. It is understood that the pair discussed Iranian sanctions and that the US has signalled it will co-operate with the UK to ensure a “reasonable position” is reached, according to a Whitehall source.

It is understood that the UK is exploring the option of the Iranian regime placing its financial interests in a UK trust to be managed until the sanctions are lifted.

In May Boris Johnson, then the foreign secretary, said the UK was determined to conserve the essence of the nuclear deal and declared the UK’s intention to help British and European firms to “have confidence that they can still do business”.

However, about 50 foreign companies have withdrawn their business from Iran since the US pulled out of the nuclear deal, according to the Trump administration.

Yesterday Iran asked the International Court of Justice, a UN court, to lift the sanctions imposed by the US, claiming the move violated a little-known 1955 friendship treaty. The US is expected to reject the idea that sanctions breach the treaty.

Britain’s decision to seek advice on sanctions from Japan marks the latest move to deepen bilateral relations between the two nations.

Defence ties between the pair have deepened as a result of a landmark meeting between the UK and Japanese foreign secretaries and defence secretaries last December which resulted in a three-year defence co-operation plan.