Italy’s prime minister said Rome is ready to cooperate in addressing issues facing the 2015 nuclear deal using the platform of international organizations.
“We will try to take effective steps through the assemblies of European countries and members of the G7 and G20,” Giuseppe Conte said in a phone conversation with President Hassan Rouhani on Monday, President.ir reported.
The nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was signed between Iran and six world powers, but the United States unilaterally pulled out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran.
As a result of the US restrictions’ economic impacts, Iran is deprived of the benefits promised by the deal in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Therefore, it reduced its compliance based on the deal’s provisions, saying the measures will be reversed as soon as Iran can enjoy the benefits once again.
“We are ready to fully meet our commitments, if the other side fulfills its own and stops its threats,” Rouhani told the Italian prime minister.
He highlighted Italy’s important status in Iran’s foreign policy, hoping it will encourage the EU to fully implement JCPOA.
As part of efforts to offset the effect of sanctions, the three European parties, France, Germany and Britain, launched a barter system called INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) in January 2019 to facilitate trade with Iran, but it only conducted its first transaction last month, which involved a small amount of humanitarian goods.
Iranian officials said the transaction was trivial and hardly had a significant effect on the country’s economy.
“INSTEX unfortunately has not been able to play a significant and effective role,” Rouhani said.
Conte said Italy will help strengthen the barter system by promoting it among more countries.
“We are ready … to enhance the EU’s financial mechanism and encourage the active participation of countries to this end,” he said.
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