Japan Cabinet Said to Approve Insuring Iran Tanker Calls

Japan’s Cabinet is poised to approve a bill giving sovereign guarantees for the nation’s oil tankers loading Iranian crude, potentially undermining Western sanctions targeting the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear program.

The government plans to provide as much as $7.6 billion so that ship owners and petroleum refiners can maintain insurance when hauling crude from Iran, according to two government officials with direct knowledge of the law, who declined to be identified before the Cabinet gives consent to the legislation as soon as tomorrow. The bill will be submitted to the Diet, or national parliament, after the Cabinet endorses it, they said.