General License X1

General License X1 is a wind-down-only instrument the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued on 7 July 2026, revoking General License X, the Iranian oil waiver, and permitting no new purchases of Iranian crude. OFAC Director Bradley T. Smith signed the revocation five weeks before the original waiver's scheduled expiry, replacing it with a hard ten-day wind-down clock running to 17 July.

The mechanism matters as much as the content: a director can issue or revoke a general licence by administrative notice alone, without new legislation or an executive order, and that reach extends to any buyer clearing dollars through US banks. The revocation bit law-abiding buyers such as Japan, which had only just reopened Iranian oil purchase talks for the first time since 2019, while China, which never used the waiver, went untouched.

The licence lapsed at 12:01am EDT on 17 July with no replacement issued, closing the last authorised channel for Iranian oil trade and returning US sanctions enforcement to its default maximum-pressure setting. It is distinct from General Licence Z, a separate 14 July instrument winding down newly blocked Shamkhani-network parties rather than the oil trade.