Iran to issue cards under Russian Mir payment system shortly

Mehdi Safari, deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy, told Sputnik Iran that talks had been held about the launch of the Mir system in Iran and that he believed cards under the system would soon be launched in the country, the Russian news agency reported on its Persian service on Wednesday.

“I don’t know whether one can use the Mir cards in Iran or not now, but an agreement has been reached to that effect,” he told Sputnik.

Safari said Iran and Russia had each come up with the idea of a new financial transactions system similar to SWIFT and had agreed to use one that combined both.

Asked whether Tehran and Moscow aimed to find a replacement for SWFIT, he said, “It is a given that any two countries that want to eliminate the dollar from their transactions should have a special SWIFT system of their own.”

Earlier this month, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said the Islamic Republic and Russia had explored ways in recent talks to eliminate the US dollar from their financial transactions in order to facilitate economic cooperation under sanctions.

Ali Saleh-Abadi said that agreements had been reached in the banking, financial, and economic sectors following extensive talks between him and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Minister of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov.

The idea of an alternative to SWIFT was initially brought up during those talks.