The meeting took place in UN headquarters in New York. The US has not yet lifted the ban on the use of the dollar for Iran. In this way Tehran cannot receive credits for 100 billion accumulated over the years. At the same time, European banks and companies are afraid to open contracts with Tehran because they fear fines from the United States.
New York (AsiaNews) - The US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met yesterday for two and a half hours to discuss how to fully implement the nuclear agreement that Iran signed last July with the great powers.
In recent days, Tehran has complained that while obeying the directives of the agreements and despite having stopped enriching uranium in its power plants, it has not receive any economic benefit because sanctions are in fact still in place.
Although many countries - especially in Europe - are available and ready to sign economic contracts with Iran, the Western banks and insurance companies are reluctant to establish new economic relations.
The problem is that the US has not yet lifted its restrictions allowing Iran to use the dollar in its international contracts. This means that Tehran cannot access to at least 100 billion dollars of credit that it has with other countries in the world. At the same time, many banks and European companies fear that resuming economic relations with Iran exposes them to fines by the United States, as has happened several times in the past.
So far, the White House has defended itself by saying that allowing the use of the dollar by Iran is not part of the agreement on the nuclear issue.
However in reality the agreement implies that the country could fall within the global banking system, which also includes the use of the dollar.
Kerry said that the talks – on the sidelines of meetings between UN diplomats – was to help understand how to implement the "agreement in exactly the way that it is meant to be and that all the parties to that agreement get the benefits that they are supposed to get out of the agreement”.
Zarif said that talks between him and Kerry will continue in two days to "see how best we can put the necessary measures into operation and into motion in order to make sure the benefits will be there for Iranian people to enjoy”.