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PHOTO BY FILE: Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will speak at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey on October 30, 2018. REUTERS / Murad Sezer / File Photo
GENEVA (Reuters) – European countries are struggling to set up a special vehicle for a dollar-free trade with Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday. parliamentary press ICANA.
The SPV would act as a clearing house that could help match Iran's oil and gas exports to EU goods purchases, bypassing US sanctions that are based on the use of the dollar in the EU. the world for oil trading.
The United States reinstated sanctions targeting the oil, banking and transportation sectors in Iran in early November.
These measures are part of a larger effort by US President Donald Trump to curb Tehran's nuclear program and reduce the Islamic Republic's influence in the Middle East.
"Europeans are struggling to identify a country to host the SPV," Zarif said. "In fact, some countries that have been proposed as hosts have not accepted this task and negotiations to find a host for the SPV mechanism are continuing."
The EU wanted the SPV to be set up by this month, but no country has offered to host it, six diplomats told Reuters last week.
Trump withdrew the United States from a historic nuclear deal with Iran last May, but the remaining signatories – Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France – were trying to preserve the agreement.
Iran can not continue to live in the current situation if its economic benefits are not guaranteed, Zarif said Tuesday, according to ICANA.
Although the US has pledged to halt all of Iran's global crude oil sales, eight countries – China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey – have now declared continue their imports without penalty.
Reportage of Babak Dehghanpisheh; Edited by Kirsten Donovan
