US President Joe Biden said in a memo to the State Department on Friday that there were sufficient supplies of petroleum so other countries could reduce what they buy from Iran.
The White House is required to affirm every six months that there is enough oil supply globally to maintain sanctions against Iran that were put in place in 2012 during Barack Obama's administration.
"Consistent with prior determinations, there is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions," Biden said in the memo.
Biden's statement comes ahead of a virtual meeting with China's President Xi Jinping on Monday, which is expected to be the leaders' most extensive meeting since Biden took office.
China is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil, averaging purchases of more than 500,000 barrels a day over the last three months.
Chinese purchases of Iranian crude have continued this year despite sanctions that, if enforced, would allow Washington to cut off those who violate them from the US economy.
The Biden administration is not enforcing those sanctions ahead of forthcoming negotiations with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that would let it sell its oil openly again.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) began to unravel in 2018 when Washington unilaterally withdrew under former President Donald Trump and reimposed severe sanctions on Iran, including its oil exports.
In response, Tehran began to gradually abandon the restrictions imposed on its nuclear activities under the nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised concerns that the organization has yet to be contacted by Iran's new government to discuss several outstanding disputes regarding nuclear activities.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said it was "astonishing" that the Iranian government had not been in contact since its election win in June.
Grossi, who had hoped to visit Iran before the next meeting of the IAEA's Board on November 22, is still awaiting an invitation.
On November 29, diplomats are scheduled to resume talks in Vienna, hoping to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran blocked the IAEA from fully monitoring nuclear activities in recent months. The move prompted Grossi to visit Tehran in September to conduct talks with top officials.
He reached an agreement on access to monitoring equipment at Iran's nuclear facilities, but he hoped to return soon.
"I think that we should have had this contact much earlier… There's a long list of things we need to discuss," he said.
The IAEA chief said the only exceptions had been "technical conversations" with Iran's new atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami.
Following Grossi's visit, the IAEA said it had been denied "indispensable" access to a centrifuge component-manufacturing workshop where it wanted to service monitoring equipment such as cameras, despite an earlier agreement.
Another long-standing issue relates to the agency's question about the previous presence of nuclear materials at undeclared sites in Iran.
The agency said in several reports that Iran's explanations regarding the materials were not satisfactory. Discussions on these issues at the Board of Governors meeting could lead to an announcement critical of Iran.
