Tehran, Iran, June 11
Trend:
An Iranian official has ruled out the rumors of China reducing its transactions with Iran to medicine and food, saying the ties between two countries have increased.
"The trade between Iran and China during recent years has grown. The trade ties has balanced connection and are growing before and after sanctions. Until now nothing has effected Iran's trade ties with China," said deputy head of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce Majidreza Hariri in an interview with Trend.
"The latest Iran and China imports and exports statistics are of 2018, while the reports of first three months of current Iranian year (started March 21, 2019) have not been released yet, so we should wait until 2020 to see the statistics of Iranian and Chinese customs. Other statistics are not reliable," he said.
"China’s Bank of Kunlun has been cooperating with Iran, the bank is currently active and Iranian businessmen are doing the transactions via this bank. Iran's connection with Kunlun Bank has never been cut," he said, rejecting claims of limitation in trades via the Chinese bank.
"After the re-impose of sanctions, Iran has entered new stage , so our bank relations with China needed to be redesigned. So, Iran's and China's financial transaction have been done through the Kunlun Bank," said the official.
Hariri went on to note various obstacles that arose during the sanctions.
"There were serious interruptions in banking relations between the two countries. There was news in May 2018 about sanctions affecting the bank communications with Kunlun Bank, but the ties were never suspended," he said.
Hariri went on to say that Iranian businessmen can do their business with Kunlun Bank, through local Iranian banks that are not sanctioned.