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“I personally believe that INSTEX in its current condition isn’t enough. This mechanism without capital is like a beautiful car without fuel,” Iran’s ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi said on June 29.
"The Europeans asked us to remain in the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. We waited a year as they requested, but we told our European counterparts that they need to take tangible steps to maintain the nuclear deal. Mere statements in support of the pact don’t resolve our problems,” he added during a one-hour press briefing that was held at Iran’s permanent mission at the UN in New York.
“Since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, the Europeans haven’t done anything tangible, that is, the JCPOA doesn’t function well. We can’t keep our end of the bargain unilaterally and not benefit from it,” Takht Ravanchi noted. On May 8, exactly one year after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran announced it will reduce parts of its commitments within the pact, giving Europe 60 days to either normalize economic ties with Iran or Tehran will unveil the second phase of its reductions.
“We can’t wait more. We are not threatening anyone. We haven’t given ultimatums to others. We have told them our plans that if they don’t do anything, we will reduce our commitments. We will take new steps if they live up to their commitments or responsibilities,” added the Iranian permanent representative to the UN.
The official rejected reports that Tehran planned to leave the deal. “We have 10 days until the first steps and 60 days more for the second phase. This is different from us leaving the nuclear deal. We have said several times that if banking and other parts of the JCPOA are realized, Iran will return to its commitments,” he said.
“If this situation continues, it means that they don’t respect their commitments,” he mentioned, referring to the Europeans.
The EU offer to create Instex SPV came as Iran threatened to leave the nuclear deal between the countries.
2.4 Americans “despite diplomacy” says Iran’s Zarif after US sanctions ayatollah
The Americans “despise diplomacy” and the Trump administration has “a thirst for war”. That was the response of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif after US President Donald Trump announced on June 24 that he was introducing new sanctions directly targeting the Iranian leadership. Both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Zarif will be hit by the fresh round of sanctions, although there is considerable debate over whether the measures will have much more than symbolic value.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Trump's executive order introducing the sanctions, which would lock up "billions" of dollars in Iranian assets, was in the pipeline before the Iranians shot down a US drone in the Gulf last week.
The US Treasury department added that eight senior Iranian commanders who "sit atop a bureaucracy that supervises the IRGC's [Islamic Revolutionary
7 IRAN Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com