MNA – Iran does not consider the EU’s faulty trade mechanism, INSTEX, as a measure in line with the bloc’s promise on complying with its JCPOA commitments, said the spokesman for Parliament’s national security commission.

Spokesman for the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini, said on Wednesday that the EU’s trade mechanism for Iran, dubbed INSTEX, is far more restricted than the bloc’s earlier promise to Iran.

While the mechanism has been recently announced by the EU as 'operational', Iran says as long as it does not cover oil exports, the mechanism is of no use to the country. Iran has given the European sides until July 7 to deliver on their promises, otherwise the country would begin the second stage of its reduction in commitments to the nuclear deal.

On this, Naghavi-Hosseini said that Iran’s measure to exceed uranium stockpile limit has worried the European sides, promoting them to hastily announce the operationalization of INSTEX in a bid to show they are still committed to the nuclear deal and prevent Iran from using the provisions stipulated in the agreement.

“Limiting INSTEX to medicine and food products is contrary to what the European sides had promised under the nuclear deal, because the international law does not allow sanctions on food and medicine for any country,” he added.

“Iran by no means considers a restricted INSTEX as EU’s delivering on its JCPOA commitments. Their commitment was to set up a channel for Iran’s oil exports so that we could receive the revenues through it,” he said.

Naghavi-Hosseni stressed that since INSTEX falls short of what EU had promised to Iran, the Islamic Republic should still continue with its decision to further reduce commitments to the JCPOA to show its serious resolve to the Western sides.