EU Says Working on ‘Concrete Establishment’ of Iran Payment Channel

“This (the payment system) is something that we have presented during the (United Nations) General Assembly ministerial week in New York. The Member States of the European Union have decided to put this system in place, so they are now working on the concrete establishment of this. I am confident that they will continue this work in a successful manner in the coming weeks,” Mogherini said on Thursday evening, the EU’s official website reported.

“I have to say that our partners from Asia have always shown a lot of interest in working to keep the full implementation of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action); obviously for security reasons that also concern Asia and Central Asia,” she added.

“But we tend to forget that Iran is not only a Middle Eastern country; it is also a country that have long borders with Afghanistan for instance, and that has many interests and links with Asia. I have always very much seen the interest and also exactly the same position that we have with our Asian partners on the need to maintain the JCPOA and on the need for Iran to stick to the full compliance to the nuclear commitments taken,” Mogherini said.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

The US has also re-imposed sanctions on Iran and has devised a new wave of economic sanctions, which are aimed at pushing Iran’s oil exports down to zero.

Following a ministerial meeting on September 24 in New York, the participants welcomed an EU initiative to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate payments related to Iran’s exports (including oil) and imports.

The meeting was chaired by Mogherini and attended by the E3+2 (France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia) and Iran at the level of foreign ministers. Mogherini was optimistic after the meeting and said the new mechanism could be ready in November.

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