Though not quite at the same level of hysteria that was generated a few years ago when it was announced that Iran was in the process of setting up its own oil bourse and, as a result, severely impacting (or much worse) the reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar, word over the weekend that Iran’s trade with Russian will now be conducted using rubles rather than dollars, according to this story at Fars News Agency, is nonetheless interesting.
Iran and Russia have replaced US Dollar with their own currencies in their trade ties, a senior Iranian diplomat announced on Saturday.
Speaking to FNA, Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi said that the proposal for replacing US Dollar with Ruble and Rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting.
“Since then, we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now,” Sajjadi stated, adding that many Iranian traders are using Ruble for their trade deals.
“There is a similar interest in the Russian side,” the envoy stated, adding that that Moscow is against unilateral sanctions on Iran outside the UN Security Council, specially the recent sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank (CBI).
This follows a number of similar moves by Iran in recent months with other trading partners and China’s ongoing efforts to establish currency agreements with many other nations, most recently Japan, a reminder that currencies such as the U.S. dollar loser their “reserve” status very slowly, but, in this case, apparently very surely.
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