France, Germany and the UK welcomed the accession of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden to the INSTEX payment mechanism, DW reported referring to a joint statement by the countries.

Six countries have joined this payment mechanism, which allows trading with Iran, bypassing US sanctions.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump announced his withdrawal from Iranian deal and imposed sanctions on Iran, and then tightened them. Tehran began to abandon its nuclear deal obligations.

France, Germany and the UK created INSTEX in January 2019, they started using this mechanism in the summer and only for humanitarian needs at first.