Removing US Dollar from Int’l Transactions to Facilitate Banking Ties: Iran

Iranian MP Ezatollah Yousefian Molla said since the contracts and deals between Iran and the European countries are in US dollars, and Iran is under banking sanctions, there are a lot of problems that incur costs in banking ties.

“Therefore, if the dollar is removed from international transactions in Iran, the banking problems will be resolved and the speed of dealings will increase,” he told ICANA in a Farsi interview.

He further mentioned that if, for example, transactions between Iran and Russia are made using the Iranian rial or the Russian ruble, then it actually means the money will be exchanged between domestic banks, but this will be difficult when we start transactions with a third country.

Another Iranian legislator also mentioned that monetary agreements with neighbouring countries reduce the influence of Western currencies.

Mohammad Hossein Farhanghi said agreements are reached with Turkey to use national currencies in transactions, and in the next steps the process will be continued with countries like Russia and other neighbouring countries, such as Azerbaijan Republic.

The comments came after the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran called for cooperation to counter US sanctions against Iran and Russia, saying that “without paying heed to the negative propaganda of the enemies to undermine the relations between countries, we can counter US sanctions by methods like eliminating the dollar and replacing the national currency in bilateral or multilateral economic transactions.”