Iran Announces Plan for INSTEX-Style Mechanism with Turkey
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Foreign minister of Iran announced plans for the launch a financial mechanism between Tehran and Ankara similar to INSTEX, the payment channel that the three EU signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have set up to maintain trade with Tehran.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara before returning to Tehran from a tour of Syria and Turkey on Thursday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Turkish side has always opposed the US sanctions against Iran and is looking for methods to maintain cooperation with Iran despite the sanctions.
Zarif said the two countries have agreed to pursue closer trade ties in a special manner, pointing to plans for preferential tariff treatment, cooperation in the energy industry, banking interaction, using common currencies for businesses, and the establishment of mechanism akin to INSTEX.
The Iranian minister noted that he and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu have undertaken to pursue the plans urgently.
In a message on Thursday, Zarif described his visit to Syria and Turkey as a “successful regional trip”, stressing that the Islamic Republic attaches importance to enhanced relations with neighboring countries.
Heading a ranking diplomatic delegation, Zarif was in Turkey on Tuesday night in a tour that took him earlier to Syria.
On Wednesday, the top Iranian diplomat held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
During the meeting, the two sides said that Ankara and Tehran needed to promote cooperation, including in the economic sector, in line with their agreements in the face of US sanctions.
They also exchanged views on the ongoing developments in Syria, Yemen and North Africa.
Earlier in the day, Zarif also held talks and later attended a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Cavusoglu, during which Turkey's top diplomat said his country has told and will continue to tell the United States that the sanctions against Iran are “wrong.”
