US waives Iran oil exports, keeps Cuba under sanctions pressure

Washington just gave Iran room to move oil again, but Cuba was left outside the door. Treasury’s new Iran General License X runs through August 21, 2026 and authorizes the production, delivery and sale of crude oil, petrochemical products and petroleum products of Iranian origin. The waiver explicitly excludes transactions involving Cuba, North Korea and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

That carve-out matters because Havana is already running on fumes. On June 11, the United States sanctioned Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company, Unión Cuba-Petróleo, under Executive Order 14404, while Treasury and State said the company’s key assets had been unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago. U.S. officials said the move targeted a key sector of the Cuban economy and was meant to increase pressure on the Cuban government, not ease it.

The contrast with Iran was stark. Just weeks earlier, on May 28, the State Department said the United States was pressing ahead with a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran’s shadow oil economy and had sanctioned eight entities and eight vessels tied to Iranian petroleum transport. Then came the June 22 waiver, issued by Treasury and OFAC, alongside a new Iran-related general license. On paper, both Iran and Cuba remain under comprehensive U.S. sanctions frameworks. In practice, Tehran got a temporary opening on oil sales, while Havana got a fresh squeeze on the sector that keeps the lights on.

That distinction is not academic in Cuba right now. The island is already struggling with severe fuel shortages and blackouts, and the new sanctions hit the very company that helps keep the system moving. If alternative suppliers fail to make up the gap, the cost will show up fast in generator hours, transit, hospital supply chains and the daily scramble for fuel that defines life across the island.

The timing also underscores how far apart Washington’s approach to the two countries has become. Reuters reporting cited in multiple outlets said the Iran waiver followed “productive” talks in Switzerland and was tied to Iranian commitments on nuclear inspections and free transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Cuba got no similar reprieve. Instead, the message from Treasury and State was that pressure on Havana’s energy system is still the point, and that the island’s narrow options are getting narrower.