The U.S. has asked Japan to completely stop importing Iranian crude, unnamed sources close to bilateral talks from earlier this week told Bloomberg. Japan has not yet decided how to proceed, but talks will continue the source said. Last time Iran was the subject of sanctions, Japan curbed its imports of Iranian crude. It did not, however, shut them down completely. Earlier today, a Japanese industry official said that Japan will be forced to stop importing Iranian crude from the beginning of October. Unless it secured a waiver from the U.S. Treasury, refiners would have to switch suppliers, the head of the Petroleum Association of Japan, Takashi Tsukioka, told media, as quoted by Reuters. The official—the chairman of Japan’s second-biggest refiner Idemitsu—said that if Japanese refiners do not get waivers, their last Iranian cargoes will be ordered in August, to be paid for in September. The wind-down period for […]