On March 20, the Trump administration granted a temporary license, or waiver of sanctions, on 140 million barrels worth of Iranian oil.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to rationalize the move:
The sale of Iranian oil probably would have been accomplished anyway – and this way, it can open up the sales to Western countries instead of going exclusively to China. And because of existing sanctions on Iran’s finances, the country may be unable to obtain the oil proceeds, noted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement on Friday.
CNN World
What Bessent failed to mention is that alleviating sanctions on a country that has targeted several American allies over the course of the Iran War undermines American credibility. Worse yet, this is one of the first times in American history, if not the first, in which the American federal government offered relief to a country it is at war with.
Furthermore, this measure demonstrates that Trump is more concerned with preventing midterm election losses that result from high oil prices, caused by the very war that he initiated, than he is with securing victory over Iran or American national security.
While the law is murky due to the fact that Iran is not a legally defined “enemy” according to American law, because the Trump administration illegally failed to obtain a formal declaration of war or authorization to use force against Iran, such a move may still amount to treason in court, as Iran is a de facto enemy. According to United States code, offering “aid and comfort” to the wartime enemy amounts to treason.
