European Greed, Iranian Need

"A failure to set up the SPV [special purpose vehicle] would be a humiliation for broader advocates of greater European economic independence from the dollar such as the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire."
"Supporters of the SPV regard the imposition of secondary sanctions on European companies in pursuit of its foreign policy goals as an illegitimate demonstration of US economic imperialism."

The SPV would serve as a barter exchange unconnected to the US dollar-denominated international financial system nor requiring monetary transfers between EU countries and Tehran (above). Photograph: Picasa/Flickr Vision

"[Trade between Iran and the EU is] a fundamental aspect of the Iranian right to have an economic advantage in exchange for what they have done so far, which is being compliant with all their nuclear-related commitments."
Federica Mogherini, EU foreign affairs chief

"War crime is not just killing people with mustard gas."
"Putting sanctions on drugs is the biggest chemical crime against humanity sanctions on Cytarabine, Doxorubicin & other medicine needed for chemotherapy/cancer treatments, is the biggest crime against humanity."
Iranian film director Abdolreza Kahani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has threatened that Iran will increase uranium enrichment as much as it wants. (Reuters)

The Islamic Republic of Iran, a member of the United Nations, issues constant violent threats of annihilation against another member-state of the United Nations, yet that august body whose mandate is that of furthering and supporting and implementing actions toward support of human rights, of achieving world peace and stability fails to blink, much less issue a notice to cease and desist. Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad stood before the General Assembly to issue that some existential threat, and not a murmur issued in dissent other than from Israel.

Despite the signing of the JCPOA whose intent was to delay Iran's acquiring of nuclear weapons, its implementation of its provisions has been questionable evidenced in its test firing of long-range missiles, some alleged to be nuclear-warhead-capable. Iran has continued to roil the Middle East with its aid to Syria in the regime's bloody war against Syrian Sunnis, its support for the Shiite Houthis in  Yemen's civil war; Iran's proxy-war with Saudi Arabia. Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are supplied by Iran with rockets to rain over Israel.

The development of fast-attack watercraft, to bedevil shipping in the Persian Gulf, its development of highly technical-capacity drones and the presence and interference of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya ensuring destabilization wherever they emerge all represent the chaos-inducing program of the Iranian Revolution. Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the theocracy, makes no secret of his administration's loathing of the West and its symbols of democracy and freedom.

Its own Iranian population has made no secret of its desire for democracy and freedom in their most recent demonstrations against the regime, calling for the fall of Khamenei and their nation's stop to its violence and interference in Iraq and Syria. The mass demonstrations taking place in Iraq and in Lebanon attest to their citizens' detestation of Iranian interference in their countries. U.S. sanctions have beggared the Iranian economy which the ayatollahs have preferred to use to arm terrorist groups rather than to ensure essential drugs and food and energy is available for their own population.

Iran inching its program toward weapons-grade levels . (Raheb Homavandi/Reuters)

European conglomerates in Germany, France and Britain are anxious to be able to resume business in Iran, and under the pretense of continued support of the nuclear agreement, have developed a newer instrument to aid Iran in sending its oil to market to shore up its stumbling economy, through the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), managing to overlook in the process the irritating issues of the regime's murder of its citizens.

More recently, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have swelled the ranks of INSTEX, all willing and eager to forward a clearing house to enable Iran to sell its oil while importing products and services in a barter agreement bypassing the stranglehold of U.S. dollars through potential trade with Iran or Iranian sale of petroleum products, risking losses thanks to U.S. sanctions. Fascinating how trade and the opportunities to gain national financial advantages always manage to motivate action beyond any moral issues of minimalist concern.