EU High Representative Federica Mogherini Monday said that EU foreign ministers had a “good discussion” to continue work in preserving in full the nuclear deal with Iran. “We have had unanimity on the need on the one hand to make INSTEX, the instrument we’ve put in place to have legitimate trade with Iran, faster and more operational, but also to continue working for Iran’s return to full compliance with the nuclear deal,” she told a press conference after a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels this evening.
“It (the deal) is not in the best of health but is still alive. Let us not speculate how many months, hours, days, years that it has ahead of it. We are at a very complicated stage. Things are more difficult than ever since the deal was signed four years ago,” she admitted. Besides the 10 EU member states that are current shareholders of INSTEX other EU member states have shown interest to join it, said Mogherini and added that some non-EU countries are also interested in joining it.
Mogherini who has just returned from a visit to Iraq and Kuwait at the weekend said: “Everybody in the region is aware of the need to have JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) fully in place.”
She said whether INSTEX will cover oil trade with Iran is under discussion and noted that there might be a meeting of the joint commission of JCPOA to discuss the recent Iranian breaches of the deal but the venue and time for the meeting have not been fixed as yet. She called on Iran to reverse its decision.
Germany, France and the UK set up a payment channel with Iran earlier this year called INSTEX, to help continue trade and circumvent US sanctions. Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden have also joined as shareholders. Last week Iran, began enriching uranium to 4.5 percent, breaking the limit set by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
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