At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest, scheduled for Thursday, January 31, Germany, France and the UK are expected to announce the creation of an agency through which settlements for transactions between European and Iranian companies will be carried out. Thus, the leading EU economies are introducing a mechanism to circumvent US sanctions in trade with Iran.
According to various sources, the company will help Europeans and Iranians to make settlements in the event that private banks, fearing US penalties, refuse to support such trading operations.
It is noted that the new special company headquartered in Paris will act as an intermediary bureau. For example, Iran in this case will be able to continue to supply oil and other goods to Europe. The bureau will send the money received for this not to Iranian banks, but to European companies selling industrial goods, medicines and food in Iran.
The company itself will not be able to protect European companies from US sanctions. Therefore, its services will be of interest to those firms in Europe that are focused on working with Iran and do not fear being excluded from access to the American market.
According to radio channel NDR, the newly formed company is run by an experienced banker from Frankfurt am Main.
Trying to save the agreement with Iran
Thus, European countries are trying to save the agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. In May 2018, Donald Trump announced a unilateral US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. This agreement provides for Tehran to take certain steps to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. Trump explained his decision by the fact that the agreement with Iran did not bring peace in the Middle East, and accused Tehran of further attempts to create nuclear weapons.
On the other hand, other signatories to the agreement, including European countries, note that Iran still fulfills all the terms of the agreement, which has already been confirmed 13 times following the results of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
