“We have been holding negotiations on monetary treaties with Turkey, Russia, China, the Republic of Azerbaijan, India and other countries, we have already reached agreements with some of them and will soon reach agreements with others,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Sunday.
Turkish journalist, political columnist, and author Mehmet Ali Güller said that such agreements aim to ease the economic and political pressure exerted by the US:
“What's important here is not so much the scale and scope of these agreements but the fact that they are being signed. In the future, they will make it impossible for American sanctions to be applied. Financial accords, common payment mechanisms, trading in national currencies, are all complementary steps towards overthrowing the rule of the dollar in the international economic system. That is why the United States opposes the INSTEX payment mechanism set up by Germany, France and the United Kingdom together with Iran.”
Earlier in the year, the three European powers set up the Instrument dubbed In Support Of Trade Exchanges or INSTEX, to enable the continuation of trade with Iran and avoid US sanctions following Washington's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in mid-2018.
Güller noted that Turkish-Iranian agreements will allow the two sides to develop bilateral relations qualitatively:
“Such bilateral agreements and joint payment mechanisms will motivate real executors “on the ground” to comply with the letter of the law within the framework of the deals reached between the countries. Maintaining bilateral trade in the context of sanctions restrictions, using various illegal methods within the framework of the US-controlled financial system gives executives a good chance to get rich, but creates problems in bilateral relations and gives the United States more leverage. Issues that occurred in past years in Turkish-Iranian trade relations, conducted through intermediaries and agents, unfortunately, are still the trump card that the US uses against Turkey. With this in mind, the signing of a bilateral financial treaty between Turkey and Iran will ensure the development and strengthening of trade relations between the two countries on a healthy, solid basis.”
Güller also pointed to the importance of the timing, as the issue was on the agenda at the same time as US President Donald Trump signed a decree further tightening sanctions against Tehran:
“The economic scale of these countries [named by Zarif in his statement] exceeds the size of the US economy, and they don't have to trade on terms set forth by the United States. After China joined the WTO and increased its influence in the IMF and the World Bank, the financial framework outlined by the United States began to move and transform. Many of the aforementioned countries are part of the same institutions and made a decision to switch to national currency in bilateral trade. This decision has gradually started to affect the trading system. We can say that this is a major blow to the domination of the dollar.”
In conclusion, the Turkish expert stressed that the country's full independence is only possible when it's economic independence is ensured, something which bilateral financial agreements aim to achieve.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.