Iran, Syria to soon ditch dollar in bilateral trade

In a meeting with Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous in Damascus on Wednesday, Mohammad Reza Farzin pointed to the development of banking and monetary relations between the two countries and emphasized the removal of the American Greenback in mutual trade.

During his visit to Damascus, Farzin also held talks with his Syrian counterpart Muhammad Issam Hazima to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest.

During the meeting, the two sides emphasized enhancing monetary-banking relations and joint investment between Tehran and Damascus.

Turning to the development of e-banking services, he stressed that using the national currencies in monetary-banking ties and increasing the volume of trade-economic exchanges are among the main strategies of Iran in the expansion of trade cooperation with neighboring and friendly states.

The governor of the Central Bank of Iran emphasized the need for developing monetary-banking cooperation between Tehran and Damascus in tandem with increasing trade and economic ties as well as solving the problems related to the banking relations between traders of the two countries in the short term.

He further pointed out that a branch of an Iranian bank will start its activity in Syria in the near future.

The governor of the Central Bank of Syria, for his part, stressed the need to increase trade exchanges between Tehran and Damascus and added that the removal of the US dollar from bilateral trade-economic exchanges and the use of national currencies will certainly change the trade balance between the two countries. 

Highlighting Iran’s achievements in the field of electronic banking, Issam Hazima called for setting up a joint working group between the two countries in order to enhance technological cooperation in the area of communications and banking cooperation.