‘Europeans to Launch Iran Payment Channel by Year-End’

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran says Tehran hopes the Europeans would establish the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), the mechanism aimed at bypassing the US bans on Iran, by the end of December.

It’s been a while that Europeans have made themselves committed to fill in the gap created in the Iran nuclear deal by the US withdrawal to provide the Islamic Republic with a chance to reap its economic fruits from the nuclear accord, Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, he said one of the mechanisms that the Europeans are working on is the SPV, which as they say will be finalized soon.

“It’s not easy to build a consensus among 27 members of the European Union on the mechanism but they said all-out efforts are underway to achieve the goal soon,” he added.

Salehi also said based on the promises given by the Europeans, the Islamic Republic hopes that their proposed package to salvage the Iran nuclear deal could be implemented by the end of the current year.

In response to a question on Tehran’s decision in case the Europeans fail to meets Iran’s expectations, he said Europeans’ proposed package is set to be drafted in cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

Iran and the remaining signatories of the JCPOA are involved in efforts to salvage the nuclear deal following the US unilateral withdrawal back in May. The US also re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic vowing to reduce to zero Iran’s oil exports.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he referred to the European Union’s decision to ditch the US dollar in all its oil transactions.

“Based on the latest report that I received and as a European commissioner underlined, the European Union has decided to use euro in its oil trade with other countries which amounts to 300 billion euros. This means they are going to ditch the US dollar in their trade,” he said.

The Iranian official underlined that the European Union used the dollar to pay for 85 percent of the oil they bought, but with the new mechanism, it is going to use only euro.

Salehi also said if the mechanism is implemented, the dollar would be isolated further in the world and the US will no longer be able to do whatever it likes in economic fields.

IFP Editorial Staff

The IFP Editorial Staff is composed of dozens of skilled journalists, news-writers, and analysts whose works are edited and published by experienced editors specialized in Iran News. The editor of each IFP Service is responsible for the report published by the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website, and can be contacted through the ways mentioned in the "IFP Editorial Staff" section.