Rubio Says Russia Sanctions Waiver Is 60-Day Pause to Analyze Global Economy

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s waiver of sanctions and tariffs on Russia would last 60 days, a pause Trump wants to use to analyze their impact on the global economy.

“The president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyze what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the US economy,” Rubio said. He noted that the economic restrictions involved a number of countries, not just Russia.

Rubio said various conflicts were affecting global energy prices, “These conflicts around the world are starting to crash into each other, and they’re having an impact not just on global oil and diesel prices” but on economies as well, he said.

Trump said late Saturday that his decision would benefit the US, though it was unclear whether he had settled on the matter. “We’ll figure it out, and you’ll figure it out,” he said. “It’s a very good decision, and it’s going to be a decision that’s good for the country, and I think good for the world.”

Trump signed the executive order on Friday, waiving sweeping sanctions and tariffs on Russia that Congress adopted last month. The law passed in September and was signed by Trump. It included sanctions targeting Russian officials, oligarchs and financial institutions, and gave Trump the authority to impose sanctions on major buyers of Russian oil and gas. The measures were intended to cut off sources of funding to supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his war on Ukraine. Late Friday, two days before the law was due to take effect, Trump exempted Russia from those restrictions.

Lawmakers from both parties sharply criticized the decision. “Beyond irresponsible,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a frequent Trump critic who will leave office in January, said in a post on X. “If the President wants to actually bring down energy prices, he can do it by solving the Iran problem, not by doing a solid for Vladimir Putin,” he said. Senator Ted Cruz, a senior Republican from Texas, called the move “a mistake” in comments aired on Fox News.

The effects of steep diesel price increases linked to the Iran war are beginning to reach the US economy, and cost-of-living worries are top of mind for voters ahead of midterm elections next month. Polls show Trump’s Republicans are likely to fare badly at the ballot box.

Rubio underscored the importance of diesel, which powers US road hauling, agriculture and construction. “The diesel that Putin was going to sell, they were (going to) make it available to the global market one way or the other. The only difference is how much of it the United States was going to get,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he feared the United States would lift more sanctions on Russia and that Trump’s action “rewards” Putin.