Europe to Pay $15bln to Fund INSTEX: Iranian MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mojtaba Zonnour said the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal plan to pay $15 billion to fund the long-awaited financial mechanism for trade with Iran, known as INSTEX.
In a speech in the central city of Qom on Sunday, Zonnour pointed to the recent talks between the Islamic Republic and the European parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and said the Europeans have agreed to deposit $15 billion in the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).
The payment will be made in three five-billion-dollar instalments, he said, adding that all economic problems facing the sale of Iranian oil are slated to be resolved.
“The Islamic Republic tolerated (Europe’s failure to meet JCPOA obligations) for a year and negotiated with the Europeans,” the MP noted.
“After a year, the result of our moves to reduce (JCPOA) commitments was to bring Europeans to their senses,” he stated.
“With the active resistance of Islamic Iran, good things will happen, the conditions of the country will improve and we will have a better future,” Zonnour said.
INSTEX is a payment channel that France, Germany and Britain - the three European signatories to the JCPOA - have devised to continue trade with Tehran and bypass the US embargoes.
Last week, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi announced details of the country’s “third step” in reducing commitments under the JCPOA.
Back in July, Iran had declared the second step to reduce its commitments by ramping up the level of uranium enrichment to over 3.67 percent.
Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the nuclear deal but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the JCPOA.
The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the deal.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.
Kamalvandi recently said that the country’s enriched uranium stockpile has reached 360 to 370 kilograms.
