MNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, while stressing the dwindling power of US dollar in international transactions, said Iran and Turkey used national currencies for 35% of their bilateral trade last year.

Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remarks at a ceremony marking the National Day of Industry and Mine on Monday.

“The role of US dollar in international transactions is diminishing,” said the top diplomat, adding “recently, Russia and China agreed to conduct their transactions without dollar. Last year, 35% of our trade transactions with Turkey was done without dollar. Even the UAE and India, which are the US’ allies, have decided to ditch dollar for part of their business.”

“We need to rely on domestic productions to further diminish the impact of US dollar on our economy,” said Zarif.

“The pressures imposed by the US on Iran do not indicate the US’ power and our weakness, but rather, the pressures are the result of the US’ repeated failures against the Islamic Republic,” Zarif stressed.

About the EU’s announcement that its trade mechanism for Iran, dubbed INSTEX, has become operational, Zarif said “although INSTEX is not what we wanted and it is not a sufficient answer to Europe’s compliance with its commitments, but it has a strategic value, which is the fact that the US’ closest allies are distancing themselves from Washington.”

At a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on 28 June, France, Germany and the UK, as the European sides to the agreement, announced that INSTEX, EU’s trade mechanism for Iran aimed at skirting US sanctions, had been made operational and available to all EU Member States and that the first transactions are being processed.

Iran says as long as the trade mechanism does not cover oil exports and banking transactions, it is of no use to the country.