TEHRAN - Mohammadreza Pourebrahimi, the head of the economic committee of the Iranian parliament, has said that the parliament will ask Zarif questions if the special purpose vehicle (SPV) is not implemented in future weeks.

“The Europeans had promised to implement this financial mechanism by the end of 2018. Unfortunately, they did not fulfil their promise,” he told the Mehr news agency on Sunday.

He noted that the Europeans have said that they will implement the SPV in future weeks, however, the U.S. is exerting pressure on them to prevent its implementation.

It is unacceptable if Europe refrains to fulfil its commitments because of the U.S. pressure, he added.

SPV is a European Union’s initiative intended to protect trade with Iran against newly reimposed U.S. sanctions.

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.

In an interview with the European Council on Foreign Relations published on Friday, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the United States cannot impose its policies on the 28-nation bloc’s legitimate trade relations with Iran.

“We Europeans cannot accept that a foreign power – even our closest friend and ally – makes decisions over our legitimate trade with another country,” Mogherini said.

She added that the EU is working with the rest of the international community to keep alive the landmark nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Iran nuclear deal “has so far been implemented in full, as certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 13 consecutive reports,” she explained.

NA/PA