Iran: INSTEX must include sanctioned goods
The president of Iran’s Central Bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati, says that the EU-Iran trade vehicle known as INSTEX should also include the goods sanctioned by the United States.
On his Instagram page, Hemmati wrote on Sunday: “INSTEX should not be a channel based on the U.S sanction structure, but a channel based on the JCPOA (Nuclear agreement) and all the barters that were permitted under the JCPOA must be possible through INSTEX.”
He continued: “Maybe in the beginning, INSTEX would just include non-sanctioned goods, but later on it should be expanded to all goods.”
Noting the secondary U.S sanctions against the companies that trade with Iran, the president of Central Bank of Iran suggested to Europeans that if “they have temporary reservations about buying Iranian oil, they must create a long-term credit line to pay for future oil purchases.”
He added that “the Europeans themselves have hinted at a similar solution during the negotiations.”
EU-Iran trade vehicle known as “Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges” (INSTEX) was proposed by the European members of the nuclear deal (JCPOA) after the United States decided to leave JCPOA and re-impose heavy sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
On Friday, the European Union and Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs announced that “INSTEX is now operational”.
The deputy foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, Araghchi, stated that although this is a step forward, it is “still far from Iran’s ideal situation.”