Baku, Azerbaijan, March 2
Trend:
Iran has banned the use of the US dollar in all trade transactions, prohibiting businesses from registering import orders using the currency, local media reported.
Mehdi Kasraeipour, the Central Bank of Iran’s director of foreign exchange rules and policies, said the move is unlikely to meet with resistance.
The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade made the announcement March 1, following an official request by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). It is meant to address fluctuations in the dollar.
“It has been for a long time that Iran’s banking sector cannot use the dollar as a result of the sanctions,” Kasraeipour said.
Iran has since implemented a new electronic system to purchase foreign currencies on a wider scale.
The country has long been seeking to make the move, having signed many agreements with other nations on using national currencies in bilateral trade.
In November, when Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he had said that in order to beat US sanctions, the two could dump the U.S. dollar in trade, a strategy that could “isolate the Americans.”