Iran Payment Channel to Be Finalized in ‘Coming Weeks

“I am hopeful that we will be able to finalize the payment channel in the coming weeks,” Maas told Germany’s Spiegel Online on Friday.

He added, “We are working urgently to clarify the final requirements -- such as determining the country where the mechanism will be headquartered. That isn't easy in a confrontative situation with the US because it is, of course, trying to exert pressure”.

In 2018, the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that the bloc’s members were working on a legal entity that would allow businesses to buy oil and conduct other business with Iran in hopes of avoiding US sanctions.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal that was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations between 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.

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