TEHRAN – Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee says Iran will not agree to EU’s trade mechanism, dubbed INSTEX, if it is aimed at putting all of Iran’s oil revenues into one place which could be taken advantage of by the U.S.

Mojtaba Zonnour said INSTEX would be welcomed only if it covers all of Iran’s economic relations as were defined within the framework of the nuclear deal, Mehr reported.

He stressed that Iran must be able to have total control over its oil revenues, adding, “If they are planning to use INSTEX as a means to concentrate all of our oil revenues into this channel, this means the enemies are trying to control our financial resources and purchases.”

This would give the U.S. a chance to block Iran’s accounts under any pretext or try to take advantage of our resources, the top MP warned.

Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the committee’s spokesman, also said on Wednesday that Iran does not consider the EU’s “faulty” trade mechanism as a measure fulfilling the bloc’s promise with regard to its JCPOA commitments.

Naqavi Hosseini said INSTEX is far more restricted than what the EU had promised.

He said Iran’s measure to exceed the uranium stockpile limit has concerned the European sides, promoting them to hastily announce that INSTEX has become operational in a bid to show they are still committed to the nuclear deal and prevent Iran from using the provisions stipulated in the agreement.

“Limiting INSTEX to medicine and food products is contrary to what the European sides had promised under the nuclear deal, because the international law does not allow sanctions on food and medicine for any country,” he reiterated.

The remarks came days after the European Union announced that INSTEX was up and running.

“France, Germany, and the United Kingdom informed participants that INSTEX had been made operational and available to all EU member states, and that the first transactions are being processed,” said an EU statement on Friday.

On January 31, France, Germany and Britain, the three European parties to the JCPOA, announced the creation of INSTEX.

INSTEX was announced nearly nine month after the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran. 

On March 20, Iran’s central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati announced that a mechanism similar to INSTEX has been registered in Iran, officially called the Special Trade and Finance Institute (STFI).

MH/PA