"The United States has showed some flexibility in the issue of granting permits to sell Iranian oil ... We proposed to the Europeans to buy our oil for their companies after obtaining the US permission, or, if they cannot do this, to provide to the Islamic Republic credit lines proportional to our oil sales. Our return to full implementation of the JCPOA is impossible without these measures," Araghchi said as quoted by IRNA.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported citing its sources that EU diplomats were backing France's initiative to allow the Islamic Republic to export its oil in exchange for the full compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The plan to reduce tension between Washington and Tehran was first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French city of Biarritz earlier in August.
Sources told the media outlet that Macron had urged Trump to consider steps that would allow Tehran to increase oil exports, which could finally help Iran's ailing economy, and to provide a loan of about $15 billion to Iran so that the country could use hard currency bypassing US sanctions.
At the same time, there have not been any comments from the White House on Macron's initiative so far.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and the European Union. It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief. In 2018, the United States abandoned its conciliatory policy on Iran, withdrawing from the JCPOA and hitting Iranian petroleum industries with sanctions, prompting criticism from its allies in Europe.
After the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the pact, Tehran began gradually abandoning its JCPOA obligations. In May, Iran warned it would discontinue a set of its nuclear commitments every 60 days until its interests under the deal are restored.
