DW: INSTEX: Europe sets up transactions channel with Iran
Germany, France and the UK have set up a payment channel with Iran called INSTEX, to help continue trade and circumvent US sanctions. The question is, how will Washington react?
Several European countries have registered a transaction channel with Iran in order to facilitate trade despite US sanctions, German diplomats confirmed to DW on Thursday.
The channel, set up by Germany, France and the UK (E3), is called INSTEX — short for "Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges."
The payment channel allows for European countries to continue trade with Iran but could put them on a collision course with Washington.
Read more ....
Update #1: EU launches mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Iran (Al Jazeera)
Update #2: Europe Is About to Infuriate Trump with a New Trading Channel to Bypass Iran Sanctions (Fortune)
Update #3: What is the EU-Iran payment vehicle INSTEX? (DW)
WNU Editor: Iran is expecting more .... SPV launch first step for EU to fulfill its commitments under nuclear deal (MEHR News Agency). The big question is .... what will the U.S. do? As to what is my take. A month after imposing sanctions on Iran for plotting and conducting terrorist attacks on European soil .... In shift, EU sanctions Iran over planned Europe attacks (Reuters), the Europeans are now doing this. This is why it has always been hard to take the EU as a serious partner. They say and do one thing .... and then a month later do something else.
serious partner? we had a general arrangement among 5 nations for Iran. Trump canceled that. They now go their own way....why blame them for what Trump did?
ReplyDeleteThere is a bigger picture with the INSTEX organization that has nothing to do with Iran. INSTEX is the EU's first serious attempt to bypass the SWIFT system that both the EU and most other nations use to convert one currency into dollars. SWIFT tracks all those foreign exchange trades and it is what allows the West to monitor much of the worlds trade. INSTEX is being positioned as a competitor to SWIFT and will exclude the US from monitoring that trade. This will give the EU a chance to push the US dollar off the worlds reserve currency monopoly. This is quite a serious economic threat to the US and firmly positions the EU with Russia and China.
ReplyDeleteI expect the US blow back to be stiff. The US guarantees the EU's security and that is a fact. In exchange for that service the US has historically expected the EU to support US foreign policy when it matters to the US. That support has been lacking year by year. With this move, bold as it is, the rationale for the US to pick up the defense tab for Europe just fell apart.
The US stands to lose a lot because of the Donald. This is one example that will erode the US's ability to "control" stuff around the world. I imagine EU backed off because of US pressure but there is always the change of mind possibility and of course the clandestine possibilities are endless.
ReplyDeleteIt seems impossible but if Trump wins in 2020 there will be more erosion from US influence and perhaps then maybe the end of NATO. Even so, he is still a source of influence erosion over the remainder of his current term.
"The US stands to lose a lot because of the Donald."
ReplyDeleteThis is Macron and Merkel pissing into the wind for profit and sheer spite.
Merkel will be retired by the voters in 2 years or less. Macron will be retired by the electorate in 4 years. He is 2 years into a 6 year term.
Profit is more important to Merkel and Macron than civil rights or women being forced to be 2nd class citizens in Iran.
Merkel and Macron talk about an EU army to have something to talk about besides their domestic ways. Merkel cannot fund the Germany army, so why or how could she fund an EU one. One because it centralizes control and gives Germany and France more power. Two, because it changes the subject. Ask how much Greece and other countries like that.
Soy Boy Macron wants to look important without the hard work. It would be nice if France would stop the spread of ISIS and Al Qaeda in North Africa. It would be a great help. But it would mean more money and higher casualties. France fighting Extremism in North Africa is a natural given it is a Francophone area. It would be much appreciated, but do not expect much from Soy Boy, the man you cannot for the life of him figure out where babies come from.
I figured you would be here. Where else would you be? The alimony check was in the mail and you are bored.
Nothing like seeing those Iranian wearing burkhas, eh Bob?
ReplyDeleteBob, you act as if its all Trump's fault. Def Sec Bob Gates in Obama's term told the Euro's that their conduct was so bad on defense they are one president away from losing NATO. Said Gates in 2011....some 8 years ago.
ReplyDelete"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress ... to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," he said.
The notion of a SWIFT alternative isn't new, the EU has discussed it for years before President Trump.
The notion of a EU army isn't new, the EU has discussed for years before President Trump.
What has changed is our reality. The US is increasingly focused not on Europe anymore nor the Middle East but to Asia. The US is deeply hindered by the debt Obama racked up and now Trump. The EU can count and see there isn't enough America to go around. So this is the start of a multi-polar world and the end of the post WWII period. All Trump did was accelerate the timing, but occurring it would.
Good comment that last one.
ReplyDeleteThe channel is an attempt to revive elements of the 2015 Iran agreement, which President Trump pulled the U.S. out of last year. The deal offered expanded trade with Iran in exchange for the country abandoning its ballistic missile program.
ReplyDelete"The deal offered expanded trade with Iran in exchange for the country abandoning its ballistic missile program."
ReplyDeleteHow did that work? The Iranians never scaled back their missile program.
There was a plan to put ABM defenses in Czechoslovakia to protect Germany, France and other countries, who have leaders that refuse to protect their citizens. Maybe that is why certain Western European leaders are pulling a vacuum on certain body parts of the Iranian leadership. It is an open question to just to how much vacuum a modern Western European leader can pull.
Some ___/____ president nixnayed the defenses.
Obama abandons missile defence shield in Europe
- The Guardian
"Obama said the new approach would offer "stronger, swifter and smarter" defence for the US and its allies."
Is that like how Obama waged swifter SMART POWER approach to Libya?
Collusion
The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access to the US financial system
- CNBC
Obama's SMART POWER
Our 'smart' intervention in Libya is already escalating
- Da Hill
How Obama’s War in Libya Unleashed Islamic Terrorism
- Huffington Post
How Obama’s ‘smart power’ helped seed the Manchester attack
- The New York Post