Đồng minh thế, cần đếch kẻ thù

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Germany, France and the UK have announced they have set up a mechanism allowing "legitimate trade" with Iran to continue in wake of US sanctions. The scheme, limited to "essential" goods for now, could be joined by more countries.

The new payment system is called INSTEX – short for 'Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges'. As of now, it is aimed at facilitating (tạo điều kiện thuận lợi) trade between the companies (thương mại giữa các công ty của ba nước này với iran) of the three nations and Iran. "In the long term," the mechanism will be "open" to enterprises from third countries, the joint statement said, adding that Berlin, London and Paris will "explore (thăm dò, tìm cách) how to achieve this objective."

The system (hệ thống) will initially focus (ban đầu tập trung vào) on "the sectors most essential to the Iranian population" – such as food, pharmaceutical (dược phẩm) and medical devices (thiết bị y tế), the statement said. While the sale of such goods are technically exempt (về mặt kỹ thuật được miễn trừ) from US sanctions (lệnh cấm vận), many pharmaceutical and agricultural companies stopped trading with Iran under the threat of secondary sanctions.