TEHRAN (Iran News) –Secretary of the Iran-Iraq chamber of commerce says now the condition has been provided for Iran to transfer its dinar resources in Iraq.
Speaking to ILNA, Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi said that during the imposition of sanctions against Iran by the U.S., the U.S. Federal Reserve acted in a way that Iran would be unable to change its Iraqi currency dinar into dollar and this created some problem, adding that but during recent talks between Iraq and the U.S., both sides reached an agreement which lets Iran use some part of its fund in Iraq for importing non-sanctioned goods from any part of the world.
He added that Iraq after getting sanctions waiver from the U.S. Federal Reserve in the first step agreed to pay $2.7b of its debt to Iran, adding that now it is possible for Iran to transfer its dinar resources in Iraq.
He reiterated that Iraq’s debt to Iran in the field of energy is around $8b, adding that Iraq’s debt to Iran is more than this figure and if this amount of forex is given to Iran, it will have positive impact on the forex market and it will meet some part of market demands and in the upcoming months we will see its positive impact in the forex market.
Sanjabi noted that this agreement will let Iran provide its non-sanctioned goods like medicine and machineries through this forex opening. He noted that Iraqi government in cooperation with the U.S. has started controlling dollar distribution and this has led to fluctuation of the forex rate in Iraq but the government with new decisions have tried to bring discipline to its financial system.
He then pointed to the amount of trade between the two countries and said that after the first month of the year that the trade had declined it has bounced back in the second month and bilateral trade will increase.
He noted that of course they expect a decline in trade during the lunar month of Muharram and it has been always the same and he predicts the trade to decline by 10%.
Sanjabi reiterated that considering considerable revenues of Iraq through oil sales, he expects the trade between Iran and Iraq to surge considerably mainly because of the rise in the global prices of the goods.
On Saturday the chairman of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce said the Arab country has released $2.7 billion worth of Iranian funds.
Yahya Al-e Es’hagh said that neighboring Iraq has released $2.7 billion worth of Iranian assets left with banks of the country.
Regarding the latest news on the release of a part of Iranian frozen assets in Iraq, the official added that a part of Iran’s frozen assets in Iraq has been allocated for the provision of funds needed by Iranian Hajj pilgrims.
Also, another part of the assets has been used to pay for the provision of staples, Al-e Es’hagh added.
