January 19, 2021
Could Europe’s INSTEX Help Save the Iran Nuclear Deal?
When the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, the United Kingdom and European Union established the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) to continue humanitarian trade with Iran. Currently, INSTEX barely functions as intended by its creators. The Biden administration should empower INSTEX and use it as a confidence-building measure tool as they enter negotiations for reentering the Iran nuclear deal, officially the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.
The Biden administration needs to demonstrate that the United States is serious about returning to the Iran nuclear deal. Supporting INSTEX would illustrate not only that “America is back,” but that the Biden administration is taking humanitarian concerns seriously without sacrificing security interests.
The European Union intended for INSTEX to facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran without relying on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunications Finance (SWIFT) network or the United States dollar. The SWIFT network is the largest cross-border messaging system banks use to send and receive payment orders. The United States and European Union first used SWIFT as part of their counterproliferation sanctions in 2012 when they pressured SWIFT to disconnect several Iranian banks from its network. As a result, when the Iran nuclear deal was implemented in 2016, they allowed SWIFT to reconnect the banks.
Read the full article from The National Interest.
More from CNAS
-
Proxy battles: Iraq, Iran, and the turmoil in the Middle East
Commentary
Since Hamas’s attacks sparked the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023, a dangerous cycle of escalation has played out across the Middle East. Iran and its proxies – such as the Hout...
By Hamzeh Hadad
-
What Comes Next for the U.S. in the Middle East
Video
Following a fatal attack on U.S. troops in Jordan, Jonathan Lord analyzes what comes next for the U.S. Watch the full interview with NBC News....
By Jonathan Lord
-
Biden Needs to Deal with China’s Ever-Closer Ties to Iran
Commentary
Iran and China’s growing relationship is no longer a “what-if,” but a “what-do-we-do-now.”...
By Arona Baigal & Kiana Alirezaie
-
Why U.S.-Iran Tensions Are On The Rise In The Persian Gulf
Video
Over the last decade, Iran has been causing more and more headaches for oil tanker operators in the Strait of Hormuz, a central artery of global trade. In the last two years a...
By Arona Baigal
