Iran: Europe should not tie financial mechanism to FATF
Tehran (KNA) - Iran says European countries should not link a payment mechanism they have announced to safeguard trade with the Islamic Republic to the country’s joining the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which has incurred domestic opposition.
"Principally, they were not and are not supposed to establish a relation between the mechanism and other issues, such as the FATF," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi told Fars News Agency on Monday.
"[Establishment of] the mechanism has been among their inherent responsibilities towards saving the nuclear deal," he said, adding, "If there is a party, which should lay conditions, it is Iran, which should stipulate its terms."
The UK, France, and Germany, three of the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement, issued a joint statement on January 31, announcing the launch of the long-awaited direct non-dollar payment mechanism meant to protect their trade ties with the country in the face of the United States sanctions.
The US left the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), last May, defying the fact that it had been ratified in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Washington afterwards returned the sanctions that it had lifted under the accord.
Source: PressTV