Ghasemi says Europe’s SPV progress slow; denies FM Zarif’s resignation

TEHRAN– Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi criticized the rate of the European Union’s progress towards the enactment of mechanisms to keep a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic alive.

“We hope that Europe will keep its promises over the implementation of ‘Special-Purpose Vehicle’ (SPV) to bypass the US sanctions,” Ghasemi told reporters on Monday, during his Weekly press conference, pointing out that “there are some ambiguities in the implementation of EU financial mechanism, but none of these issues are the reason for the failure to progress.”

Ghasemi said as the Iranian Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei rightly put it, we will negotiate with the Europeans, but we will not wait for them, and we will pursue the economic issues of the country with proper domestic planning and relying on internal capacity, Mehr News reported.

“If we realize that the European side is not capable of implementing a financial mechanism, we have our own instruments, but for the time being, we hope that the issue will be solved soon,” Ghasemi added.

Foreign Ministry spokesman said “what is imposrtant is that we proved to the world that we are committed to our obligations and that as long as others remain committed, the process will continue.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointied to the rumors about Iranian Foreign Mnister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation, and rejected the fake media hype saying the diplomat is continuing his responsibility ‘in full force’.

M.Wassouf