Washington 0
30 May 2019

The U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, contended that “by nearly every measure the Iranian regime and its proxies are weaker today than when the president took office”. He also estimated that “our oil sanctions will deny the regime $50 billion in revenue that is 40 per cent of its annual budget”, stressing that “there will be no more oil waivers granted”. Commenting on a European special purpose vehicle for trade with Iran, Hook stated that “I am sceptical that Iran will ever be able to internally agree on setting up a transparent mirror image to match the European financial mechanism. That said if there is a day where there is any sort of… transaction being conducted by INSTEX we expect those to be purely for permitted transactions”.

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