Iran Press/Iran news: 'Iran will not wait for the implementation of EU's non-dollar channel as it has continued its trade relations so far', is among the remarks made by Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after attending a meeting, Mehr news agency reported.
The meeting was held between Iranian foreign minister and the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission along with the deputies and senior managers of the Economy Ministry and Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on Monday.
It was held to discuss the newly announced financial channel known as the INSTEX by three major European countries for trade with Iran under the US sanctions.
"foreign ministry had objected to Europe for the late launch of the trade mechanism," Zarif said.
"The delays in establishment of the INSTEX was due to different reasons including the US pressures," Zarif told reporters after the meeting.
The foreign minister further added that he did not feel there were any preconditions in the statement that was read by three foreign ministers of UK, France and Germany at the time of announcing the 'INSTEX' or 'Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges', a 'Special Purpose Vehicle' aimed at facilitating legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran.
Also, On Feb. 04, Iran’s Ambassador in London, Hamid Baeidinejad said that the EU has no right to set conditions for implementing the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), as the move is in line with enforcing commitments under Nuclear Deal that was taken with delay.
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Zarif continued: “Europeans must start to take the steps to which they are committed,” adding that “they themselves mentioned this in the statement.”
The Iranian top diplomat further said that the three Europeans foreign ministers did not talk about the FATF as preconditions in their statement.
He went on to explain more that Iran’s trade partners have been advising the Iranian government to join the FATF in order to have easier foreign banking exchanges.
Zarif underlined that the INSTEX should be of greater importance for Europeans to prove their independence from the United States than for Iran.
"We are waiting to see what the Europeans will do. That does not mean that we have not done anything in the last 9 months (since June when the EU promised Iran to secure its interests in a bid to keep the nuclear deal alive)."
Iranian FM continued: "We have our relations with Russia, China, India, Turkey, Iraq and other countries, and we continue our way, and will not wait for Europe, if Europe wants to prove that it is a reliable partner, it needs to take action."
The top diplomat praised the establishment of the trade mechanism as a good political move on the part of the Europeans against the United States.
Zarif added "Europeans did this very late, and we have not seen its implementation yet. We have to wait and see what the Europeans will do in practice."
On January 31, German, British and French foreign ministers in a news briefing in Bucharest officially announced registration of the European special financial mechanism known as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).
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Part of the E3 joint statement reads that the INSTEX will function under the highest international standards with regards to anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and EU and UN sanctions compliance. In this respect, the E3 expect Iran to swiftly implement all elements of its FATF action plan.
The E3 underline their commitment to pursue further development of INSTEX with interested European countries to make this instrument in support of trade exchanges with Iran operational by following the steps set out above.
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