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A special clearing house designed to allow European companies trading with Iran to circumvent the newly reimposed US sanctions will be set up in Europe within a few months, possibly in France or Germany.
The clearing house, known as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), is seen as essential to reassure Tehran that the EU really wants to reward Iran for signing the deal. 2015 agreement on its nuclear program by developing relations with the country.
Under the terms of the agreement, Iran has agreed to limit its nuclear activities and to submit to international inspections in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions,
Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement earlier this year, breaking with Europe, and a full panoply of US sanctions came into effect on Monday. The package included the threat of sanctioning companies or countries buying Iranian oil, the engine of its economy.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Sajjadpou, speaking in London, expressed frustration with the pace of implementation of the SPV: "What's missing is speed and efficiency."
Tehran was hoping for an announcement this weekend about the next steps of the SPV, announced in principle two months ago.
The SPV would serve as a barter exchange unrelated to the international financial system denominated in US dollars or requiring cash transfers between the EU countries and Iran. An Iranian company selling in Europe would accumulate credits that could then be used to buy a product from another European company.
The three major European signatories of the 2015 agreement – France, Germany and the UK – are still studying the detailed implications of the US decision. The main areas of concern include threats to humanitarian trade and the possibility for Iran to access the revenues of those countries with a waiver to continue buying Iranian oil for at least six months .
There is also concern that no European country is willing to host the SPV for fear of reprisals from the United States. The UK has always been unlikely to be a site for the SPV, both because of the legal complications of Brexit and the need for the SPV to negotiate in euros.
Western sources, however, stated that candidates had come forward and that details, including the structure of its board of directors and its holdings, were under discussion. The bulk of technical negotiations with Washington was led by France.
Officials are investigating how an SPV would protect, for example, a German company operating in the United States from secondary sanctions.
The failure of setting up the SPV would be a humiliation for the broader advocates of European economic independence vis-à-vis the dollar, as the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire. SPV supporters believe that imposing secondary sanctions on European companies in pursuit of its foreign policy objectives is an illegitimate demonstration of US economic imperialism.
The United States has largely rejected the SPV. Brian Hook, US Special Representative for Iran, said: "We have not seen much, if any, of the SPV's request. We do not expect any major company using a SPV. "
Federica Mogherini, head of EU foreign affairs, said that trade between Iran and the EU was "a fundamental aspect of the right of Iranians to have an economic advantage in exchange of what they have done so far, namely to respect all their nuclear obligations. commitments ".
A number of Iranians, including celebrities, have condemned the reimposition of sanctions online, using the hashtag #SanctionsTargetMe.
Fashion photographer Reihane Taravati said, "This campaign is intended to clarify the fact that US sanctions are targeting the people of Iran."
Director Abdolreza Kahani tweeted, "The war crime is not just about killing people with mustard gas. The imposition of drug sanctions is the biggest chemical crime against humanity. Sanctions for cytarabine, doxorubicin and other drugs needed to treat chemotherapy / cancer are the biggest crime against humanity.
