“European countries failed to abide by their obligations in launching this financial channel [INSTEX] with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the CBI wrote on its official Twitter account on Monday in reaction to German Foreign Ministry.
The CBI announced that INSTEX was designed to save Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) but it did not work due to lack of courage on the side of the European countries to exert their national and independent economic power in this respect.
“They (Europeans) also found no way to finance INSTEX. It is clear that Islamic Republic of Iran is not willing to move its financial resources just to maintain the European channel and to import goods that it can supply from other channels,” the CBI noted, adding, “INSTEX was supposed to shape trade relations between Iran and Europe independent of US sanctions, not define it within the framework of sanctions.”
The German Foreign Ministry recently claimed that INSTEX, had not been effective and that “Iran was responsible” for its failure because it did not agree to the deal.
In relevant remarks last month, Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said that INSTEX) has failed to prove itself effective in the past two years.
"The INSTEX system must prove its efficiency after two years,” Takht Ravanchi said in his December 19 remarks, highlighting the European countries’ promise to guarantee that Iran will reap the economic dividends of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if it remains in it.
He pointed out that Iran's reduction of its nuclear commitments was the result of the other parties' violation of the deal and was within Iran's rights under the JCPOA.
Takht Ravanchi made the remarks in reaction to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' 10th report on the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the six world countries (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany).
As per JCPOA Iran agreed to restrict parts of its nuclear energy program in return for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed on the country, mainly by the US.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its "so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the negotiating table.
In response to the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its nuclear commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran has particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European signatories to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its business interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On January 5, 2020 Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry, whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of stockpiled uranium or research and development.
Meantime, Biden has recently said in a CNN article that he wants a renegotiation of the contents of the deal before he agrees to rejoin the agreement.
“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy. If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations. With our allies, we will work to strengthen and extend the nuclear deal's provisions, while also addressing other issues of concern,” he wrote, mentioning that he wants changes to the contents of the nuclear deal and guarantees from Tehran that it would be open for compromise to strike multiple deals over its missile and regional powers as well as a number of other issues that have been the bones of contention between the two sides in the last four decades.
In response, Zarif had stressed that the US has violated the nuclear deal and is in no position to ask for any conditions for its return to the JCPOA, adding that it's Tehran that has its own terms to allow the US back into the internationally endorsed agreement.
The foreign minister has reiterated time and again that Tehran would not change even a single word of the agreement, and cautioned the US that it needs to pay reparations for the damage it has inflicted on Iran through its retreat from the nuclear agreement and give enough insurances that it would not go for initiating the trigger mechanism again before it could get back to the deal.
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