Iran, Thailand keen on launching direct banking ties :Official
September 07, 2018 - An official at the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok said talks with Thai officials are underway to remove obstacles to mutual banking cooperation, adding that the two sides have proposed ways to establish direct banking ties.
Responding to a question from an Iran Daily reporter, Deputy Head of Mission to Thailand Jafar Akbari said the two sides have been exploring ways to launch direct financial relations.
The minister counselor expressed hope that the talks would prove fruitful.
Touching upon details of the proposed ways to facilitate transactions, another Iranian official quoted a Thai official as saying on condition of anonymity that talks were held between the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand) and several Iranian banks to establish brokerage ties.
Mohammadreza Karbasi, the deputy head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), told Iran Daily that according to the Thai official, trading in national currencies is also being considered.
As the two sides have also planned to enter into a barter agreement, “Banks of both sides are reviewing ways to facilitate barter exchange between businessmen from the two countries,” the ICCIMA deputy head added.
The United States withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement in May and reimposed unilateral sanctions against Tehran in early August.
The sanctions target Tehran’s acquisition of dollar bank notes, trade in gold and other metals, transactions related to the Iranian rial, and purchases of cars and commercial passenger aircraft.
Washington would reimpose a second batch of sanctions in November, primarily aimed at undermining Tehran’s oil exports.
Under the deal reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions.
In defiance of warnings from the European Union, the nuclear deal signatories and many international players, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 reimposing the first round of sanctions on Iran to levy “maximum economic pressure” on the Islamic Republic.
But other signatories to the nuclear deal (Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) are doing their utmost to save the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).