TEHRAN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the EU-designed payment channel is an "empty" mechanism, Tasnim news agency reported.
"Empty Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) is of no use to us ... it is void and nothing is in it" to protect Iran's interests under the 2015 nuclear deal, Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The INSTEX, EU's special payment channel with Iran, was announced by the EU in January to secure trade with Iran and skirt U.S. anti-Iran sanctions after Washington pulled out of the 2015 landmark Iranian nuclear deal in May 2018.
However, Iran has been cynical to the EU's "seriousness" and feasibility of the mechanism and has threatened that it will no longer wait for the Europeans under the U.S. pressures.
Rouhani urged the United States and the Europeans to honor their obligations pertaining to the deal.
