In written answers given to questions by American economic news website Bloomberg published on Sunday, Hemmati said that Iran has been insisting on removal of banking sanctions as a condition to return to full compliance with the JCPOA, the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program that was abandoned in 2018 by a former government in Washington.

“The removal of sanctions against the central bank, Iranian banks, SWIFT, and any money transfer between them and major foreign correspondent banks, needs to be verified,” said Hemmati making a reference to the financial massaging service in Belgium which refuses to clear transactions involving the CBI and other Iranian banks because of US sanctions.

Iran and the U.S. have been engaged in indirect talks with other global powers in the Austrian capital Vienna as they seek to revive the JCPOA.

U.S. president Joe Biden said on Friday that the United States is ready to lift many of the sanctions imposed on Iran in recent years but he indicated that Iranian side has not been happy with the move and is pressing for a more inclusive sanctions relief.

Hemmati told the Bloomberg he was hopeful that a deal could be reached in the talks in Vienna. He said that Iran would be able to verify whether the sanctions have been relieved from the banks.

“Personally, I am hopeful about the trend of negotiations … We will make the verification in our own ways,” he said, according to remarks confirmed on the CBI website on Sunday.

Meanwhile Hemmati in a TV program on Sunday night said that the current value of the forex in the market is not real and Iran’s national currency will gain value very soon.

He said soon the CBI will announce its new policy and reiterated that two major factors were behind the current inflation rate in the country.

He said as long as the ratio of imports and exports is not balanced, the inflation will continue because the country is forced to use its forex reserves in the CBI. He added that the second factor is the government budget and the non-oil revenues should be equal to the costs.

Hemmati once again reiterated that the Central Bank is not a political body and it decides based on the economic facts and it will soon issue its new policy. He added that the policy will be on reducing the inflation in the country and the parliament and government should resolve problems.

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Speaking to ICCIMA website Abdolreza Rezaei Honjani, he blamed domestic economic woes as the major factor for slowing down or halts foreign investments and exports. He also emphasized the approach of Swedish companies for improving the cooperation process for investment and called the joint cooperation with this country in case of removing sanctions to be very important and effective.

He then pointed to the cooperation between Iran and Sweden which started some 70 years ago with the arrival of the first models of Volvo trucks in Iran and added the first economic relation between Iran and Sweden was set by importing heavy trucks of Swedish company Volvo and it gradually expanded to other fields and industries like mineral industries.

Rezaei pointed to the Swedish presence in Sarcheshmeh and Golgohar mines projects as an example for the joint cooperation between the two countries and then pointed to other fields of cooperation between the two countries like reinforcing telecommunication waves, building a power plant, and packing industries in the field of dairy production.

He stated that the economic cooperation between Iran and Sweden has always been defined on joint investment and exports of different types of capital goods like technical know-how and industrial pieces of machinery, and they have been less focused on the export of consumer goods.

Rezaei reiterated the Swedish have entered Iran’s market in a way that as well as improving the occupation in the country, they transfer the needed technology and improve the level of quality of production; therefore cooperation and relation with this country has been important for Iran.

He admitted that Swedish companies do not seek risks in their business and since Sweden’s trade with Iran accounts for only 0.5 % of Sweden’s total exports, the companies despite an eagerness to continue cooperation avoid it due to the sanctions, and for this reason, the trade relation between Tehran and Stockholm has declined after the sanctions.

Rezaei also pointed to the cooperation of big Swedish companies with Iranian state companies, adding that since the past, relations between both countries have been focused on auto-making and mining industries and they have paid less heed to the small and medium-sized companies.

He went on to say that Iran’s private sector is keen to restore the past relations as well as boosting relations between small and medium-sized enterprises of both countries.

He reiterated that the economy does not move on command, and in order to boost international relations, new and upgraded methods away from commanding policies are required for presence in the markets.

Rezaei added that most of Iran’s exports to Sweden are done by the baggage which is mostly related to the foodstuff sector, adding that Iranian carpet and pistachio are exported to Sweden via the Hamburg market. He noted that the total direct export of Iran to Sweden stood at $11m in 2019 and including the unregistered exports, the figure can reach around $16m. He also said that Iran’s imports from Sweden stood at $51m in 2019 while both countries’ total trade volume was over $370m in 2018 which shows it has declined by $80m in 2019.

He reiterated that even the sanctions are lifted due to the banking problems and not approving FATF and CFT laws in the country, restoring banking ties with other countries is impossible or very difficult.

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