Iran Sets Deadline for EU to Implement Anti-Sanction Plan

In an interview with IRNA, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran has underlined that the European Union’s decision to set up a payment system to allow foreign oil companies and businesses to continue trading with Iran while evading the US sanctions should come into effect no later than November 4.

Even if not fully in force, at least the framework of the European mechanism for sustained trade with Iran under the fresh round of American sanctions must be defined until November 4 and part of it should be working, Araqchi underscored.

“Europeans know about our view that by November 4, at least part of those mechanisms should come into force,” he added.

The deputy foreign minister then explained that the new round of US sanctions is not anything new or different, because the sanctions have already taken effect unofficially.

“All parties that will be banned from buying (Iranian) oil from November 4 had already begun to reconsider their Iranian oil purchases in advance,” he said.

The European Union said on Monday that its members would set up a payment system to allow oil companies and businesses to continue trading with Iran in a bid to evade sanctions after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.

The countries said in a statement that they were determined "to protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran."

With the United States and the dollar dominating so much of global trade, the statement said the new mechanism would "facilitate payments related to Iran's exports (including oil) and imports, which will assist and reassure economic operators pursuing legitimate business with Iran."