According to Reuters, the French top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday talks with Iran over the creation of credit lines guaranteed by Iranian oil revenues were continuing.
He meanwhile said that the US sanctions waivers for Iranian oil exports were needed to launch the credit line.
The idea is "to exchange a credit line guaranteed by oil in return for, one, a return to the JCPOA ( Iran nuclear deal) ... and two, security in the Gulf and the opening of negotiations on regional security and a post-2025 (nuclear programme)," Jean-Yves le Drian told reporters.
"All this (pre)supposes that President Trump issues waivers," the French top diplomat added.
The talks on the credit line is while the the foreign ministers of three major Europeans announced the launch of the INSTEX at the start of this year but it has not come into force since then.
The foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on a visit to Moscow yesterday that Russia and China have not cut their trade relations with Tehran under the US pressures unlike the Europeans.
An Iranian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi and comprised of the deputy Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and a representative from Oil Ministry as well as Iran’s envoy to France held intensive negotiations with French diplomats in Paris on Monday afternoon to discuss and advance the ongoing initiative between presidents of Iran and France.
Iran has warned that the it will take the third step to reduce JCPOA-related commitments firmly if the EU countries do not take practical steps to live up to their own commitments to the deal by Thursday.
On May 8, the anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal (JCPOA), Iran announced that it was partially discontinuing its obligations under the JCPOA and urged nuclear deal remaining signatories – China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom – to shield Tehran from Washington's sanctions.
Tehran says its countermeasures fit within its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal, and that it will reverse the measures once its demands are met.
As a first step, Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile to a level above the 300 kilograms set by the JCPOA.
In the second step, Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA-limit of 3.76 percent and it has announced that it may increase the level of uranium enrichment to pre-JCPOA era to 20% as the third step to reduce its JCPOA-related commitments.
KI/PR