TEHRAN - Mohammadreza Pourebrahimi, head of the Economic Committee of the Iranian Parliament, has said that INSTEX (Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges) does not include transfer of oil money.

“Europe was obligated to help transfer of Iran’s oil money, however, INSTEX does not include this issue,” Mehr news agency quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

He said that INSTEX is unacceptable because it restricts transfer of the country’s oil income and also is linked to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“Europe’s act in setting condition for implementation of INSTEX is an insult to the Iranian people. The [Iranian] Foreign Ministry should take a serious position in this respect. We believe that Europeans’ commitments should be fulfilled apart from the FATF,” he remarked.

Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has also said Iran would never accept the “humiliating conditions” of the European Union’s financial mechanism for trade with Iran, including Iran’s accession the FATF.

On Thursday, France, Germany and Britain officially announced the creation of INSTEX, a special purpose vehicle aimed at facilitating legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran.

The European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a statement saying the INSTEX will support legitimate European trade with Iran.

It added that INSTEX will function under the highest international standards with regards to anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and EU and UN sanctions compliance.

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. unilaterally from the 2015 nuclear deal in May and ordered sanctions against Iran. The first round of sanctions went into force on August 6 and the second round, which targets Iran’s oil exports and banks, were snapped back on November 4.

NA/PA