EU with Russia and China

EU seeks to bypass US sanctions on Iran with trade finance tool
Payments channel would enable European companies to trade with Iranian businesses

EU powers are in talks over launching a payments channel that would enable European companies to trade with Iran as part of efforts to defy US sanctions and keep alive a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.

France, Germany and Britain are working with EU officials on the finance tool ahead of November’s restoration of a second wave of US sanctions that will target Iran’s oil exports and transactions with its central bank.

An official EU effort to maintain financial access to Iran would deepen a transatlantic rift after Washington warned European companies to comply with its reimposed countermeasures or be shut out of the US financial system.

The goal of European policymakers is to help both EU and Iranian businesses preserve the commercial benefits that persuaded Tehran to sign the 2015 agreement to curb its atomic energy programme, diplomats said.

The so-called E3 European countries — which are all signatories to the nuclear deal, along with Russia and China — have been working with the European Commission and the EU’s diplomatic service on the planned funding channel, they added.