Iran hopes Italy will join a financial mechanism aimed at bypassing United States sanctions and maintaining limited trade with the Islamic Republic, the country's envoy, Hamid Bayat, said on Friday.
"Instex is an important tool that should enable Europe to keep the promises it made to Iran, such as allowing it to sell oil and to receive the revenues (from oil sales)," Bayat said.
Instex (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) became operational on 28 June, Germany and the United Kingdom - three signatories to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran - confirmed on Monday.
The mechanism, involving a barter system, is designed to allow European and Iranian companies to trade without any direct financial flows, thus bypassing the dollar and the US financial system.
Instex's designers say it was meant for trade in basic goods, like food, medicine and humanitarian aid but Iran wants to use the instrument to sell oil - the country's main source of foreign revenue.
"Iran needs to sell oil in order to purchase essential goods," Bayat said. He was speaking to reporters and Italian analysts at an encounter in Rome.
Doubts remain among analysts on how effective the mechanism will be, especially after the Iranian government’s decision to violate its 2015 atomic deal with six world powers.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported this week that Iran had knowingly enriched more than 300 kilogrammes of uranium - the limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal.
US president Donald Trump withdrew last year from the 2015 nuclear deal, saying it did little to prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon.
Trump also reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under the pact in return for Tehran curbing its sensitive nuclear work, and last month slapped fresh sanctions on the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior Iranian officials.
