Iran Sanctions Could Be Beneficial to Turkey: Diplomat
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The new US sanctions against Tehran can bring about positive consequences for Turkey, an Iranian diplomat said.
“This is the best opportunity for Turkish companies to increase their presence in Iran. They can use this benefit to conquer the part of the market that was acquired by European and Chinese companies,” Seyed Hafez Mousavi, the commercial counselor for the Iranian embassy in Ankara, told Anadolu news agency on Saturday.
Mousavi added that Iran and Turkey could expand cooperation in various sectors, including tourism and investment.
In 2017, bilateral trade volume between the two countries totaled $10.7 billion, up nearly 11 percent year-on-year.
In the first nine months of 2018, the trade volume stood at $7.5 billion.
Mousavi said sanctions would barely affect the Iranian economy, as it is not completely dependent on international financial and monetary systems.
He added that the sanctions could be a good opportunity for Iran to decrease its reliance on oil revenues and to advance its non-oil production exports.
“We are going to implement policies to expand our non-oil production exports and enhance our production capacity,” Mousavi said.
On trade in national currencies with Turkey, Russia and China, he said the issue is on Iran’s agenda.
“We had good negotiations on this issue. They expressed their readiness to use national currency to work with Iranian companies,” he added.
Mousavi said using the Turkish Lira instead of the US dollar would also be welcomed by Iranian companies.
“Turkey is our main partner and neighbor. We prefer to use the lira instead of the dollar,” he said.
