A system proposed by the European Union to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and sidestep US sanctions will cover a range of goods and transactions rather than having a limited scope, a senior official said.
“The mechanism that is being negotiated is meant to facilitate Iran’s transactions with EU member states and will include many items,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi told a regular press briefing in Tehran, Iranian news agencies reported.
The European Union wants the so-called Special Purpose Vehicle to help preserve the economic benefits for Iran deriving from the curbs it placed on its nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in May.
EU diplomats had hoped to have the SPV in place by now, but ran into delays as member states balked at hosting it for fear of being targeted by the revived US sanctions regime against Tehran.
France and Germany are now due to take joint responsibility for the SPV, Reuters reported. But some EU diplomats have said its ambitions could be scaled back to encompass only less sensitive items such as humanitarian and food products rather than oil trade.
Qasemi said the mechanism will address not only food and humanitarian trade, but also other required imports.
“It has not been designed only for food and medicine,” he said, adding that the suggested mechanism can even help ease Iran’s trade with other countries.
EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, recently said the special trade mechanism could be in place by the yearend.
“I would expect this instrument to be established in the coming weeks, so before the end of the year, as a way to protect and promote legitimate business with Iran,” she told reporters following a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
She did not offer any other details but said work on creating the mechanism was “advancing well”.
Syrian Issue
Asked about Turkey’s plans to launch a new military operation in northern Syria within days, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “No state should take action on Syrian soil without the permission of the country’s government.”
According to Reuters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that his army would soon launch an operation against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, whom his country views as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party—a group classified by the West as a terrorist group and that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.
Qasemi said any operation should be carried out in coordination with Damascus, otherwise it could complicate the situation in the war-ravaged Arab state, which has improved thanks to cooperation among Iran, Turkey and Russia within the framework of the Astana initiative.
Tehran, Ankara and Moscow began holding regular talks on the Syrian conflict in the capital of Kazakhstan, which is not involved in the Syrian war, at the start of 2017. The trio helped reduce violence by creating de-escalation zones across Syria among other measures.
“We hope this positive cooperation would continue and I think our friends in Turkey are aware of the realities on the ground in the region,” Qasemi said.
