Iran – Iraq have no trade interaction in dollar
Following Iraqi administration spokeman announcement that the country will end the usage of dollar in trade interactions with Iran, head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-Eshaq said, “The two countries don’t have trade interactions in dollar and they conduct in Iranian Rial or Dinar and banking transactions from Iran`s Central Bank can’t be influenced by interactions in dollar”.
Regarding the statements issued by some Iraqi officials on ending dollar transactions between the two countries following reimposition of US sanctions against Iran, US`s pressure on the country and the fate of the trade and economic exchanges between Iran and Iraq, he said, “Because of upcoming Iraqi election, regrettably, some of its officials neither pay attention to Iran-Iraq trading history nor the future of Iraq’s economy”.
Insisting on the long-standing political and economic relations between Iran and Iraq, he said, “The volume of Iran-Iraq transactions is $12 billion per year and it is supposed to increase by $20 billion this year. Certainly, such political dialogues don’t disturb the economic and trade exchanges and the future of the two countries is bright”.
Stating that the current economic and trade exchanges between Iran and Iraq remain strong, he remarked, “Saudi Arabia as a hostile country to Iran, wants to spend for Iraq to intervene in its economy”.
“In addition to enemies such as Saudi Arabia we have, which is trying to influence Iran-Iraq trade and economic ties by the support of US, we have some trade rivals such as Turkey and China but we don’t have any problems with them and the current situation, which has been accrued recently, is because of Saudi’s attempts to meddle in Iraq’s economic sector by its money and unfortunately, some people don’t think about Iraq’s future due to political issues,” he added.
He said, “Iran has many amazing advantages for Iraq and due to geographic closeness to the country; the cost of construction projects would be decreased. Additionally, Iran has done long-term investments in Iraq and nearly two million Iranian tourists travel to Iraq and two million Iraqi tourists visit Iran annually”.
“In the sectors of food, construction materials, technical-engeenering services and economic investment, we have approperiat exchanges and some political figures can not decide on Iran-Iraq economic exchanges and involve their political views in this field,” the head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce concluded.
END