BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17
By Elnur Baghishov –Trend:
Iran will use its earned revenues stored abroad for import of essential products such as medicine, Director General of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati told IRNA, Trend reports.
On June 17, Hemmati held a meeting with Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq.
The director general stressed that according to the agreement reached during a meeting, Iran will start this process with Iraq.
Due to sanctions, Iran and Iraq are unable to carry out official financial operations on the state level. Since the sides have strong economic ties, alternative ways for doing trade are used.
Hemmati added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has large financial resources in Iraq. According to the agreement, it was decided to import a number of essential products from Iraq.
"Most of Iran's financial resources in Iraq are related to Iran's gas and electricity exports to Iraq," he said.
Hemmati said that last year (from March 21, 2018 to March 20, 2020), Iran and Iraq signed a contract on a financial payment mechanism. Thus, the use of Iran's financial resources in Iraq will be carried out within the framework of this contract.
Iran exports 32 million cubic meters of gas and more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity to Iraq daily.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies and individuals. The sanctions have cut off Iran's banking ties with many countries. Iran intends to implement a number of plans on the return of export currency to the country.