Michael Bock, former German ambassador and successor of Per Fischer at the head of INSTEX, visited Iran on Sunday to hold talks with German business delegates in Iran and other senior Iranian officials.
"The new INSTEX President has travelled to Iran to introduce himself and the next steps with the partners of STFI (Special Trade and Finance Istrument between Iran and Europe)," reported AHK, the German business delegate in Iran on Sunday.
"It was also important for him to meet with German and Iranian company representatives in order to learn about their current concerns in German-Iranian trade. For this purpose he visited the AHK Iran and exchanged information with its managing director von Bohnstein. In the evening he discussed in a small group of representatives of companies and associations," the report added.
Michael Bock was selected to head a panel to promote European trade with Iran (INSTEX) and meet with Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Bock replaced Berndt Erbel this month after the latter found himself involved in an undesired political situation.
INSTEX stands for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges and was founded in January by Germany, France and Great Britain, the three signatories to the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 to coordinate import and export payments.
As a kind of intermediary, the Paris-based organisation is intended to enable European companies to continue doing business with Iran despite the US sanctions in place against Iran.
This should convince Tehran to continue to adhere to the nuclear treaty. For fear of US sanctions, most banks are refusing to do business with Iran.
Despite intensive efforts, INSTEX has so far not conducted any business. Berlin and Paris had always emphasized that they wanted to do business above all to alleviate the supply situation in Iran.