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Finnish top diplomat confirms talks on credit facility for Iran in exchange for oil sale

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has confirmed reports that Iran would be able to resume its oil sale under a new initiative by France, which seeks to provide Tehran with a crucial credit facility to help save a nuclear deal that has suffered as a result of US sanctions.

Haavisto told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the French initiative to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the JCPOA, showed that Europeans were “serious about this issue.”

The top diplomat did not dispute reports suggesting that Iran would be able, as part of a scheme by French President Emmanuel Macron, to export up to 700,000 barrels of oil a day to tap into an international credit line of $15 billion.

Macron’s new plan to mediate between Iran and the United States gained a new momentum last week when the French president discussed his initiative in person with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the summit of G7 industrial nations in France, where US President Donald Trump was also present.

PressTV-France: Saving Iran deal hinges on US reissuing waivers

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Haavisto said that Macron had made a brave move a “very brave move” by inviting Zarif to the sidelines of the G7 summit in Biarritz, in southern France, just days after the top Iranian diplomat had visited the Western European country

Iranian authorities have signaled that they would be open to Macron’s efforts to resolve the standoff with the US if they would be able to sell oil and have a free and unrestricted access to the credit facility.

Iran has already reduced its commitments under the JCPOA to force parties to the deal to stick to their own obligations.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also said on Tuesday that setting up the $15bn credit line would require US to grant some waivers to the sanctions it has imposed on Iran. .

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