The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said that the Europeans should show their sincerity about their Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) by ordering Iran’s crude.
“If the Westerners are serious and determined about this issue (INSTEX), they should inject money to it equal to the extent that our oil revenues have been harmed or file for Iran’s oil futures,” Abdolnasser Hemmati said in an interview with the IRIB TV on Tuesday, Tehran Times reports.
He stressed that if the Europeans want to keep the nuclear deal alive, they should implement their undertakings, noting that INSTEX should also include the sanctioned goods too.
Washington withdrew from the internationally-endorsed 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018, re-imposed sanctions against the country and started a plan to zero down Tehran’s oil sales.
INSTEX was set up by Germany, France and the UK late January to keep trade with Iran in the wake of US sanctions. In return, Tehran set up and registered a counterpart to INSTEX called Special Trade and Financing Instrument between Iran and Europe (STFI) to pave the way for bilateral trade.
Neither of the channels have realised a financial transaction between Iran and European countries.