Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, Hemmati said that Iran currently does not use the US dollar in its trade with Russia and Turkey.
“We are trading with Russia using the ruble and with Turkey using the lira, and this trend is gradually removing the dollar from the trade cycle,” he added.
“Many countries are now willing to trade with their national currency so that the US does not monitor their trade,” the CBI chief stated.
“Now all of our financial transactions with Russia are conducted in the national currency” he said, adding that about 30 to 40 percent of Iran’s transactions with Turkey are in national currencies of the two countries, and the rest are carried out in the euro.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a press conference that Russia has reached an agreement with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about trade with national currencies.
Putin said the two presidents reviewed applying an advanced payment system.
In remarks on September 17, Hemmati had said that Iran’s financial telecommunications system, known as SEPAM, has replaced the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in the country’s financial transactions with Russia.
The CBI chief also referred to Rouhani’s meeting with his Russian counterpart, on the sidelines of the fifth trilateral summit of Iran, Russia and Turkey in Ankara on September 16 and said the banking ties between Tehran and Moscow were also discussed at the meeting.
