President Trump in May last year, when he announced that he was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal Jonathan Ernst/ReutersBritain, France and Germany are launching a payment mechanism allowing European companies to conduct business with Iran without falling foul of US sanctions. It is the most ambitious attempt by European allies to save the Iran nuclear deal from collapse following President Trump’s decision to withdraw from it. Diplomats acknowledge that the mechanism may not allow the scale of transactions that Iran says it needs to keep the deal alive but they hope that it will serve as a powerful symbol of their commitment to the agreement, which saw sanctions on Tehran lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear activities. The sanctions that Washington reimposed last May and November have forced many European businesses to pull out of Iran. The mechanism — Instex, short for…

Source: The Times January 31, 2019 17:03 UTC