India on Wednesday reiterated its stance that it is prepared to deal with the impact of the sanctions imposed by the United States on buying oil from Iran. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that New Delhi’s decision will be based on the country’s energy security, commercial consideration and economic interests.

“There will be additional supplies from other major oil producing countries based on our robust plan drawn up by the Ministry of Petroleum,” said Kumar.

The US had re-imposed sanctions on Iran last November, after Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The deal had lifted decades-old sanctions on Tehran, imposed in the wake of its nuclear programme.

Iran had described the sanctions as illegal and said that it had attached “no value or credibility” to the waivers, BBC reported.

The United States has allowed India, China, South Korea, Japan, Greece, Taiwan, Turkey and Italy to temporarily import oil from Iran without sanctions. Italy, Greece and Taiwan have already stopped buying oil from Iran. However, last month, the United States decided not to renew the waivers.

Iran is India’s third largest supplier of oil after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Kumar avoided a question on when India changed its policy on only recognising sanctions imposed by the United Nations and not curbs imposed by countries unilaterally. On May 28, 2018, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had said India will continue trading with Iran despite the US’ sanctions, asserting that it only recognises United Nations restrictions.