Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, but also Belgium and the Netherlands will join the INSTEX mechanism for trade with Iran, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The INSTEX is a special purpose vehicle created by Germany, France, and Britain earlier in 2019 to help EU companies do business with Iran, bypassing US sanctions against the Persian country.
Following a meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA in June, the mechanism became operational and available to all EU member states.
Iran considers the European Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a tool set up to help trade with Tehran under the US sanctions, to be weak so far, but got the message.
The trade instrument in its initial stage only covers the supply of medicines, medical equipment, and agricultural products, but Tehran also seeks to export oil.
In 2018, the US regime abandoned its conciliatory policy on Iran, withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and hitting Iran with sanctions, instead of returning frozen bank assets.
The European Union has been trying to preserve the JCPOA by various diplomatic means. The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the European Union.
It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief. Tehran began gradually abandoning its JCPOA obligations, after the USA unilateral withdrawal from the pact in May 2018.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
