Time for Europe to speed up INSTEX implementation

Kamal Kharrazi said on Saturday that the next two months will be a good interval for the Europeans to fulfill Iran’s demands, including the activation of the financial mechanism to skirt US sanctions, known as INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges).

Iran revealed on Wednesday countermeasures to US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal, giving the other remaining parties to the JCPOA a 60-day ultimatum to comply with their commitments, particularly those regarding Iran’s economic interests in the banking and energy sectors, before reducing further commitments to the agreement stage by stage.

Now that the long-awaited mechanism has been established, Kharrazi added, "it should become operational as soon as possible to fulfill its already delayed expectations."

This is the least the EU could do to prove its commitments to the previous agreements, he said.

Despite reducing the commitments, Iran says at any given time that its demands are met, it will resume complying with the suspended commitments, which have been made impossible to continue due to the US measures and sanctions.

The decision to suspend some obligations to the JCPOA follows Washington's move to ramp up pressure against Iran, by re-imposing new sanctions, including restrictions on Iran's low-level uranium enrichment, and ending the sanctions waivers for Iran’s major oil clients in an attempt to drive the country’s oil exports to zero.

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