Iran and Russia are working together to create an alternative payment system to the U.S.-based SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to facilitate bilateral economic cooperation in the face of Washington's illegal sanctions against the two countries.
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"Naturally, two countries that want to de-dollarize their transactions should have a special system similar to SWIFT," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said.
The Iranian diplomat revealed that both countries have proposed a version of the system created by the northern nation and stressed that a good agreement based on the realization of transactions in foreign currencies between Russia and Iran is very close.
#Iran will soon start accepting payments made with #Russia’s Mir bank cards, Russia’s RIA news agency quotes a top official as saying, making it the latest country to adopt the Russian-made alternative to Visa and Mastercard.https://t.co/7A1ZERVHTS
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) July 27, 2022
Safari pointed out that several pacts between Moscow and Tehran were signed to cement the new payment system, which will be called Mir and will be launched in the near future in the Persian nation.
The Kremlin had already revealed that trade with the Islamic country grew by about 31 percent and at the same time stated that both countries would be abandoning the practice of using US dollars to negotiate with each other.
It is worth mentioning that European Union (EU) countries separated seven Russian banks from the SWIFT system as part of the sanctions packages against Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine.