Zarif: INSTEX Likely to Become Operational
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a financial mechanism that the EU has devised for trade with Iran in defiance of the US sanctions could take effect in future.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Istanbul on Monday, Zarif called on the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal to honor their commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
On INSTEX, a payment channel that the three EU signatories to the JCPOA have set up to maintain trade with Iran, Zarif said, “The new move from the six EU countries to join INSTEX is a positive measure, but what we need to witness is INSTEX being operational.”
“There is probability that this method, or mechanism, will be implemented in future with the signing of an agreement between the Iranian side and the European side of INSTEX,” he added.
In late November, the Finnish foreign ministry said Finland, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden will join INSTEX.
Elsewhere in his comments in Istanbul, Zarif voiced Tehran’s dissatisfaction with “the extent of commitment of the European Union and its member states to the implementation of the JCPOA.”
“This subject was brought up in the (JCPOA Joint Commission) meeting both by Iran and the two other non-European JCPOA parties, namely Russia and China, in an explicit manner and with remarkable coordination among the three countries,” he said.
“Moreover, the other issues mooted in the meeting involved the necessity for genuine fulfillment of the JCPOA commitments by other (parties), and that the Islamic Republic has always been prepared to halt its measures on the basis of Article 36 (of the JCPOA) in case the others honor their commitments,” the Iranian foreign minister added.
Zarif has travelled to Turkey for the Heart of Asia conference, a regional initiative for peace in Afghanistan.