Europe is looking to open bank accounts in Europe for Iran to deposit oil revenues and secure Iranian oil exports, Iranian media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying.
"Currently, we are holding close and intensive talks with Europe over their promises to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers," Araqchi has said, according to the Iranian Fars news agency, reported by Azeri outlet Trend.
At the end of last month, Iran's Foreign Minister was quoted as reminding the European Union that Iran was still waiting to receive guarantees that the EU would continue to buy Iranian oil even after U.S. sanctions kick in on November 4.
"We are still waiting for Europe to take action on the sale of Iranian oil and the preservation of banking channels," Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
The EU has triggered legislation known as the blocking statute, which effectively prohibits European companies from complying with third-party sanctions.
In comments reported by Iran's Tasnim News Agency, Araqchi said on Tuesday that the European parties to the Iranian nuclear deal have until November 4 to "fulfill their pledges" to offset the impact of the U.S. sanctions.
"We have clearly announced to the Europeans that if our main interests in the JCPOA, (namely) the issue of oil sales…, are not served, staying in the deal will not benefit us anymore," Araqchi said in a broadcast on Tuesday evening.
"As long as we can sell our oil, it will be in our interest to stay in the JCPOA, and even if after the November 4, when the US sanctions are officially re-imposed, we could sell our oil, we might consider continuing the work with the JCPOA," the deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying.
Europe is expected to be one of the regions to which Iranian oil sales could considerably drop due to Western shipping companies, insurers, and refiners backing out of purchases from Iran over concerns that they could run afoul with the U.S. Administration.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More