The Austrian Foreign Ministry announced that Vienna does not want to host an institution known as the "private purpose company", which the EU plans to create to help Iran circumvent US sanctions.
"We have been asked whether Austria, in principle, is ready to host this (private purpose company)," a foreign ministry spokesman said, confirming a report from Bloomberg.
"After an in-depth study, we came to the conclusion that we are not currently able to host this special purpose company," he told the Austrian press.
The Europeans, who want to salvage the nuclear deal signed in 2015, despite the withdrawal of the United States, seek to establish a "special purpose company" to allow Tehran to continue selling oil, despite sanctions imposed by Washington in early November.
Austria refers to "a large number of technical issues", which threaten "the effectiveness of this facility".
In September, EU Foreign Minister Federica Mujerini spoke about the theme of the special purpose company, whose practical features are still unclear.
This institution should initially be used as an intermediary to allow European companies to do business with Iran without being subject to US sanctions.
According to Bloomberg, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, signatories to the 2015 agreement with Iran along with the United States, Russia and China, would prefer Austria to be the headquarters of the institution.
