IAEA’s Meeting on Iran Proved US Isolation: FM Zarif

Explaining about possible economic isolation of the US, Zarif said, “The Americans abuse the dollar’s power too much, and will gradually lose this advantage.”

Iran’s top diplomat then added, “We are prepared to confront whatever threat [posed] by the US on whatever scale.”

After leaving the nuclear agreement, which is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal. It has also threatened the countries keeping their trade with Iran with “secondary sanctions.”

This has prompted Iran’s various trade partners across the globe to try going around the sanctions by proposing non-dollar trade.

Britain, France, and Germany, the European signatories to the JCPOA, announced one such trade system in January. The system, officially known as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), began its first transactions late last month.

Seven more European states have committed to join the INSTEX, with Helga Schmid, secretary general of the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS), saying on Thursday that beyond the 10-strong European states, “more, also non-EU member states, will join” the trade instrument.