The controversial US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Friday strongly criticised the Norwegian ambassador to Iran for lauding a European system to circumvent American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran Press/Europe: The United States ambassador to Germany Richard A. Grenell has criticized the joining of six European countries to the INSTEX trade mechanism, enabling business with Iran, saying the action is 'disrespectful' to US policies.

The US ambassador to Germany tweeted: “Terrible timing - why fund the Iranian regime while its killing the Iranian people and shutting off the internet? You should be standing for human rights not funding the abusers,” Iran Press reported.

Grenell is known for his extremist views against Iran and is the most controversial US ambassador in Europe.

Norway’s ambassador to Iran, Lars Nordrum, tweeted that “Today announced that we join INSTEX with the E3 to facilitate trade with Iran and preserve the JCPOA.”

Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden will join the INSTEX mechanism for trade with Iran, the six countries declared in a joint statement on Friday (29 November) ahead of further talks between parties to the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna next week.

INSTEX is an abbreviation for The Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, a European special-purpose vehicle (SPV) launched in January 2019 to circumvent US sanctions imposed on Iran. The US illegally and unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran. The international community has disapproved of this unlawful and unilateral action by the Trump administration.  211/101

 Read More:

Six more European countries join INSTEX