A/HRC/42/46 months,2 which is strong evidence that a number of firms are unwilling to take the risk of losing access to United States markets or of facing huge financial or criminal penalties in the United States if they keep doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are reports of significant losses for European Union firms related to the termination of their activities in the Islamic Republic of Iran,3 despite the recent entry into force of updated Regulation No. 2271/96 of the Council of the European Union (see also paras. 55–56 below). 9. Also, there are recurring reports that payments and financial flows are affected by de facto bans on the use of the international wire transfer payment system (particularly from the SWIFT system), making humanitarian exemptions ineffective. Without the ability to pay, no food or medicine can be bought. This situation effectively amounts to an unlawful blockade, or may be comparable to collective reprisals, both of which are banned under humanitarian law (A/HRC/30/45, para. 42). The Special Rapporteur has called on the United Nations and on the independent procurement agencies of third countries to remedy the situation and ensure in particular that humanitarian supplies reach target countries (A/73/175, para. 36). He has also taken note of the recent establishment by France, Germany and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the support of the European Union, of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), to facilitate legitimate trade between European economic operators and the Islamic Republic of Iran by shielding European Union companies from the effects of extraterritorial, secondary United States sanctions. According to its sponsors, INSTEX will support legitimate European trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran, focusing initially on the goods most essential to the Iranian population, such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices and the agri-food sector.4 At the time of writing, some measure of uncertainty still surrounds this mechanism. According to certain sources, the European Union side has shown some trepidation, in the face of threats by United States officials, in terms of shielding European Union companies trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran from United States sanctions. That said, it is expected that in the long term INSTEX will be open to economic operators from third countries who wish to trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran. 10. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern the statement made by the Iranian Red Crescent Society that United States sanctions have already prevented it from obtaining any foreign financial aid to assist victims of the recent flooding that has killed at least 70 people and inundated some 1,900 communities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.5 This points to the ineffectiveness of humanitarian exemptions to sanctions, a situation that cannot be justified in terms of humanitarian law. B. Cuba 11. In previous reports to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur noted that the expectations raised by the United States’ recognition, under President Barack Obama in 2014, that the embargo on Cuba in place since 1960 was a failed policy and that, in the words of Mr. Obama, “isolation hasn’t worked” and by the subsequent moves towards normalizing relations between the two countries have been shattered since 2017, when the current United States Administration returned to a hard-line policy of comprehensive economic isolation (A/73/175, para. 6, and A/72/370, paras. 7–8). 2 3 4 5 4 Trade between the Islamic Republic of Iran and European Union member States during the first month of 2019 stood at €343.38 million, which represents an 82.72 per cent decline compared with the corresponding period in 2018. See “Iran trade with EU plunges”, Financial Tribune, 13 April 2019. See, e.g., Peter Campbell, “Renault hit by Iran withdrawal as quarterly sales drop 5 per cent”, Financial Times, 26 April 2019. See www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/iran/events/article/joint-statement-on-the-creation-ofinstex-the-special-purpose-vehicle-aimed-at. See, e.g., Reuters, “Flood-hit Iran getting no financial aid from abroad due to US sanctions: statement”, 7 April 2019.