Negotiations between Iran and the E.U. aimed at establishing a special payments channel to evade President Donald Trump’s renewed trade sanctions against Tehran are well underway, Iranian deputy Minister of Petroleum, Amir Hossein Zamaninia confirmed.
In an interview with ISNA news agency released on Wednesday, Zamaninia said, “Iran and E.U. are negotiating. Expert-level negotiations between Iran and E.U. (Germany, UK and France) on establishing special payments channel are underway”.
“We hope the special payments channel would be established before November 4,” he added.
Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the original Obama-era trade deal in May. Shortly afterwards, his administration reimposed sanctions on Iran, which left other signatories to the pact scrambling to avoid punitive measures for dealing with Tehran.
Mr. Trump declared the landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, had been “horrible,” leaving the Iranian government with excess cash to contribute to conflicts across the Middle East. Within days of his original announcement, he observed that even the threat of new sanctions had already worked:
