The US Treasury Department postponed the start of sanctions against the Serbian oil company NIS to October 9 after a conversation with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian national television RTS reported.
The sanctions were last supposed to come into effect on October 1, but Vucic held talks with the US side and the sanctions were postponed for another eight days.
Yesterday, Vucic participated in a pro-government march in the town of Obrenovac, noting in a comment to local media that the sanctions were postponed out of respect for Serbia, but in a week " we will have the same question again without an answer".
"We thank them, they wanted to show us respect, to show us that they hear us, to understand Serbia's position. I thank them for that, but do we get anything concrete with this, when in seven days we will have the same question again, but we will still not have an answer?", Vucic asked.
This is the seventh consecutive postponement of sanctions after NIS was placed on the US sanctions list in early January this year due to its relationship with the Russian company "Gazprom Neft", which is under Western sanctions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, "Gazprom“ withdrew from the ownership of NIS after its shares were taken over by the Russian company "Intelligence“ (Intelligence).
NIS announced last week that it has secured sufficient crude oil reserves for processing, as well as sufficient quantities of petroleum products to supply the market at this time.