Any efforts to import Iranian crude oil beyond the accepted levels negotiated from November to May will be sanctioned, the US has warned, amidst reports that India and China were seeking ways to buy oil from Tehran.

US President Donald Trump last month refused to give waivers to countries like India from buying oil from Iran, in an attempt to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.

The US on Thursday reiterated its position after the media reports from New Delhi, quoting unnamed government officials, said that India was looking at ways to resume oil imports from Iran despite the US sanctions.

Last week, India’s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India had stopped buying oil from Iran after May 2 when the US ended its waivers that allowed the top buyers of Iranian oil, including India, to continue their imports for six months.

“There will be no more oil waivers granted and the only oil that would have been permitted would have been under the cap that we negotiated. That cap was negotiated, it was to run for a period from November of 2018 until May of 2019,” Brian Hook, Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State, told reporters during a conference call on Thursday.

He said once the countries have reached the cap of what was negotiated, that would be the limit of the oil that US would permit to move through and would not be sanctioned.

“We will sanction any efforts to import Iranian crude oil beyond the limits that were negotiated in the period that ran from November through May,” Hook said.

Iran earlier used to supply 10 per cent of India’s oil needs.