TEHRAN, Mar 04 - The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Islamic Republic would never seek others’ permission to proceed ahead with its foreign policy, stressing that European nations are well aware of this.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - “European countries know that we are not a country to accept stipulations,” Bahram Qassemi told reporters on Monday during his weekly presser in Tehran.
He rejected as “false” reports that Europe has set conditions for Tehran following the bloc’s creation of a new payment mechanism to facilitate trade with the country.
He added that Iran has paid a high price over the past forty years to maintain its sovereignty, and will never accept any sort of intervention in its domestic and foreign affairs.
“(They are well aware that) we will not ask for anybody's permission on issues related to our foreign policy,” Qassemi stated.
Recently, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement on the creation of the INSTEX that will allow trade between the EU and Iran without relying on direct financial transactions that could be targeted by US sanctions.
INSTEX (the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) has been registered in France and will be run by German banker and former Commerzbank manager Per Fischer. The new special purpose vehicle will have a supervisory board consisting of diplomats from all three countries: Miguel Berger of Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne of France and Simon McDonald of Britain.
The European countries have reportedly set two conditions for the mechanism. The first condition is that Iran should join the FATF and the other is that the country should enter the negotiations on its missile program, Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani said in early February.
On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal that was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
Trump on August 6 signed an executive order re-imposing many sanctions on Iran, three months after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
He said the US policy is to levy “maximum economic pressure” on the country.
The second batch of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic took effect on November 4.
Source: Tasnim