Instex – the European trade vehicle is a barter system that circumvents U.S. sanctions.

On Monday, in a significant development, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated, all the formal requirements for a European payment system for barter-based trade with Iran that has been designed to circumvent U.S. sanctions are now in place and should be operationalized soon.

Maas is in Iran to meet President Hassan Rouhani and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as part of an European effort to salvage Iran’s landmark 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and defuse rising U.S.-Iranian tension.

“This is an instrument of a new kind, so it’s not straightforward to operationalize it,” said Maas. “But all the formal requirements are in place now, and so I’m assuming we’ll be ready to use it in the foreseeable future.”

So as to protect the Iranian economy from re-clamping of U.S. sanctions and continue to maintain the nuclear pact, France, Britain and Germany have set up a special-purpose vehicle called Instex.

The three European Union members have been trying to get Iran to keep its commitments under the deal to cut back its nuclear program – which Washington distrusts – by helping it to circumvent the trade sanctions Washington has reimposed.

They want Instex to meet norms for legitimate financing set by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, even though Iran as a country is not yet fully compliant with them.

On his route to Iran, during a stopover in Iraq Maas warned, a conflict with Iran poses significant risks for the entire Middle East; Europeans are convinced that it is well worth the effort to try and maintain the nuclear pact with Iran.

The European signatories to the nuclear pact which includes France, Britain and Germany, have all been trying to save it; they however share the same concerns as the United States over Iran’s ballistic missile development and regional activities.

“The EU is not in a position to question Iran’s issues beyond the nuclear deal,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi.

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Tags: ballistic missile development, barter, Britain, economy, European, Financial Action Task Force, Foreign Minister, France, German, Germany, Hassan Rouhani, Heiko Maas, INSTEX, Iran, Iranian, legitimate financing, Middle East, Mohammad Javad Zarif, nuclear pact, payment system, president, trade vehicle