Page 16 - IRANRptJul19

Instex still not ready for sanctionable trades
imposed by the US, Instex remains active only on paper.
Slovakia’s State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Lukas Parizek, who arrived in Iran for bilateral political consultations, was the first to be briefed on Iran’s movement towards departing from the nuclear deal (formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA).
"Sadly, the balance between the Islamic Republic of Iran’s obligations and rights under the JCPOA has been upset, and considering the European side’s unfulfilled pledges, there remains no reason for the implementation of Iran’s one-way commitments. However, Iran has kept the window of diplomacy open by [only] gradually reducing its commitments," Araqchi said.
Parizek, in response, said Slovakia and the European Union remained committed to the nuclear deal and Instex.
"We are determined to strengthen reciprocal ties, particularly the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and are ready to hold a joint commission meeting in the near future to that end,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini said on June 26 in a meeting with a visiting Pakistani delegation that Instex would “soon be ready”, but she failed to give a date for when that may be.
"We are trying all we can, and we continue to do all we can to maintain the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, keeping it intact. We will continue to do so in these days, the most difficult days for the nuclear deal you can imagine," Mogherini said.
"The deal in itself has mechanisms and steps that can be taken in case of non-compliance with the agreement but the focus is to keep the agreement in place," she said.
Instex, in which France, Germany and the UK play participatory roles, has not even been readied to the point according to which trade deals subject to US sanctions could be processed. Officials envisage it first assisting with flows of food and medicine which are not sanctionable.
Late on June 26, the Guardian reported that European states will announce a multi-million-euro credit line to ease trade between the EU and Iran in a last-minute and “probably doomed effort” to persuade Tehran not to take the first step to quit the nuclear deal.
Reportedly, the relatively modest credit line will be announced in Vienna at a meeting of the joint commission for the Iran deal—the grouping of all the remaining parties to the deal, namely Iran, France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China.
The credit line is expected to be announced on June 27, the same day Iran will break part of the JCPOA by exceeding the 300kg limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile. On July 7, Iran set due to take a more serious step to breach the deal by upping uranium enrichment purity levels over the 3.67% limit set in the accord. There could merely be a symbolic increase to 3.68%, but if the levels continue to move up the Europeans would be anxious that the breakout time—the period it would take Iran to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear bomb—could fall below a year.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said this week that
16 IRAN Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com