TEHRAN, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Friday Iran had never become dependent on the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a special-purpose vehicle for facilitating business between European countries and Iran.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry, made the remarks when answering a question about the INSTEX shareholders' decision to dissolve the mechanism.
He said following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, the European governments made a commitment to safeguarding Iran's economic interests within the agreement's framework, noting that among the mechanisms proposed to this end was the establishment of the INSTEX as a financial channel to facilitate trade between Iran and Europe.
Kanaani added although Iran had never become "reliant" on the mechanism, the country spared no effort to cooperate in keeping the channel active.
Kanaani cited as the main reasons behind the INSTEX's failure a "lack of determination" on the European states' side, their inability to fulfill their commitments in compensating the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement, their compliance with Washington's illegal sanctions and not injecting any financial resources or long-term credit lines into the channel ever since its activation.
He said Iran has, all the while, conducted its international trade transactions through other international financial and banking channels, stressing that attempting to put the blame on Tehran by the INSTEX shareholders in their statement is a "futile bid" to conceal Europe's "absolute failure" to have minimum financial independence from the United States.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, the E3 group of Britain, France and Germany announced the dissolution of the INSTEX.
The statement added the decision was made by INSTEX shareholders -- namely Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Britain, which voted in favor of the dissolution of the INSTEX at the extraordinary general assembly on Thursday.
The E3 cited "Iran's persistent refusal to engage with the company," as the reason for its dissolution.
The INSTEX, a European special-purpose vehicle, was established on Jan. 31, 2019 to facilitate non-U.S. dollar and non-SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) transactions with Iran to avoid breaking U.S. sanctions following Washington's May 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reimposition of sanctions on Tehran. ■
