Iran Press/Europe: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, making his first visit to Germany as secretary of state, said on Friday that the US does not take issue with the development of the system known as INSTEX, so long as it deals with the trade of goods not subject to sanctions as the Europeans contend it will.
"We’ve been pretty clear about trade with Iran — there are items that are sanctioned and there are items that are not,” Pompeo told reporters after meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at a government villa on the outside of Berlin, according to AP.
"When we think about INSTEX, if it’s aimed at facilitating the movement of goods that are authorized to move, it’s unproblematic,” he added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met with the German chancellor and foreign minister on his first Berlin visit.
US partially retreats from threatening INSTEX as Washington has threatened sanctions against the financial body created by Germany, the UK and France to preserve trade with Iran in defiance of US trade barriers.
The Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, signaled in a May 7 letter obtained by Bloomberg that INSTEX, the European vehicle to sustain trade with Tehran, and anyone associated with it could be barred from the US financial system if it goes into effect. 101/205
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