IRNA – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas hoped on Tuesday that the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) would operate soon with first transaction.

Maas wound up visit to Tehran in Monday to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

After returning to Germany, Maas warned on TV about any move that escalates the situation in the Middle East.

He said that escalation can lead to a disaster, adding, "None of the parties wants that."

He said that everyone in the countries he visited wanted to prevent the tensions from getting out of control. He visited Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

He said that his visit to Tehran was the first step to de-escalate the situation and hoped that Iran would not enrich uranium more that the grade envisaged by the JCPOA.

He had already tweeted that neither Iran nor its neighboring countries want conflict.

In his meeting with President Rouhani, Maas said that the EU endeavors to maintain and promote economic relations with Iran.

He added, “Iran’s adherence to its commitments under the nuclear deal after the US walked away from the deal a year ago is indicative of the country’s intelligent and better leadership in the international scene."

In May 2018, the US pulled out of Iran nuclear agreement or the JCPOA, signed in 2015, and restored two rounds of economic sanctions on Iran.

Washington is also trying to bring Iran's oil sales to zero by not renewing the waivers to the eight countries, the customers of Iranian crude.

Despite the US withdrawal, Iran has stuck to the agreement as verified by 15 consecutive reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Russia, China, Germany, France and the UK have said they will stay in the deal as long as Iran remains there.

The three European signatories, also known as the E3, put in place in January a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), to help trade of non-sanctioned goods with Iran. However, the mechanism has yet to operate.

The mechanism is to cover food and medicine in the first phase, and expand afterwards.

Iranian ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad warned on Tuesday that the US may adopt counter-measure to paralyze INSTEX in a bid to drive the EU diplomacy to a total failure.