European barter system insufficient, says Iran

Iran yesterday welcomed the launch of a European barter system to bypass US sanctions as a "good omen" but said it was insufficient in light of the Europeans' commitments. Britain, France and Germany said last week they had carried out the first transaction through the Instex mechanism to deliver medical supplies to Iran, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. "We see the launch of Instex as a good omen," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a televised news conference. But "what the Islamic Republic of Iran expects (from now on) is for the Europeans to fulfil the rest of their commitments in various fields (such as) banking, energy, insurance," he added.