Zarif: Iran to quit JCPOA, if Europe mechanisms fail to work

According to US media Washington Post, Zarif made the remarks Saturday night addressing a roundtable in Iran paermanent mission in New York.

Countries are starting to make agreements to use their own currencies in bilateral trade, Zarif was quoted as saying.

“You can use your own currency,” he said.

“Sell stuff in your own currency, buy stuff in the other country’s currency, and at the end of a specific period, balance it out in a non-dollar currency. It’s quite possible and may even be profitable,” he added.

“Have you seen that map with all the U.S. bases around us and said, ‘Why are these Iranians putting their country in the middle of all these bases?” he reiterated.

Zarif went on to say that “We are in our region. We have not invaded any country. We have not sent troops anywhere we were not asked. We have not bombed any country. We have not taken territory from any country. We are content with our size, with our geography, with our resources. We have no eye on anybody else’s territory, resources or people.”
“I didn’t know that you still had witch hunts here in the US,” Zarif said when asked to characterize the conversations with Kerry.

“What he has done has been to encourage us to stay in the deal,” he added, lauding the virtues of dialogue between Americans and Iranians.

Earlier Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that EU’s special purpose vehicle (SPV) intended for easing banking and trade transactions with Iran will take effect on November 4.

“Europeans are aware of our expectations that the SPV’s structure should be clear by then and at least some section of the mechanism should start working,” he said.

On Saturday, a Russian diplomat announced that Russia and China are to adopt new mechanisms independent of Europe to bypass the US anti-Iran sanctions.

The special mechanism created by the European Union for payments with Iran does not include the other parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said the diplomat who was speaking to Russian media ‘Interfax’ on condition of anonymity.