Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo has granted an exemption from sanctions to allow the development of a port in Iran as part of a India-led project to build a new transport corridor to revive Afghanistan's economy, a State Department spokesman said.

 

The spokesman said that the exemption granted by Pompeo of the sanctions the United States imposed on Iran on Monday would also allow the construction of a rail line from the port of Chabahar to Afghanistan and the shipment of non-sanctioned goods such as food and medicine to the war-torn country.

 

The spokesman added that this will also allow Afghanistan to continue to import Iranian petroleum products.

 

"These activities are vital in the context of continued support for growth and humanitarian relief in Afghanistan," he said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters.

 

The US administration has re-imposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the main source of revenue for Tehran, and the financial sector following Trump's announcement on May 8 of the withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers.

 

But these sanctions have threatened India's ability to raise funds for the development of the port of Chabahar, which could open the way to trade millions of dollars to Afghanistan and end its dependence on the Pakistani port of Karachi.

 

Building the Afghan economy could also reduce Kabul's dependence on foreign aid, curbing the illegal opium trade, the main source of income for the Taliban.

 

The foreign ministry spokesman said that the exemption from the sanctions granted to the Chabahar project aims to strengthen US relations with Afghanistan and India "within the framework of implementing the policy of exerting maximum pressure to change the policies of the Iranian regime that threaten stability in the region and beyond."