Tehran, Iran, March 16
Trend:
Iranian company for the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) will be set up soon, said the governor of the country's Central Bank.
On Jan. 31, France, Germany and the UK (E3) officially announced the creation of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a special purpose vehicle, to allow them bypass US sanctions in trade with Iran. INSTEX facilitates non-dollar trade with Iran, allowing European companies to trade with the Islamic Republic without being hit by the sanctions.
The European powers should now establish a budget for INSTEX and define its rules. Iran must also set up a company for INSTEX. The same system inside Iran should be set up to organize rial transactions for Iranian companies.
The US embassy in Germany said it did not expect INSTEX to blunt its effort to pile economic pressure on Tehran.
“The establishment of this company does not mean that Iran is lagging behind for the operation of the European mechanism and that we have adopted our strategy for financing and trade of the country during sanctions,” Abdol Nasser Hemmati, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, said Trend reports citing Tasnim News Agency.
The Central Bank has ensured full explanation of the Iranian mechanism to representatives of the three European countries last week, he said.
“We are waiting for practical measures from Europe,” the CBI governor said.