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Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will speak at a meeting Wednesday at the United States headquarters to promote the elimination of nuclear weapons. (Bebeto Matthews / AP)
Carol Morello
National Journalist Focused on Foreign Policy and State Department
Iran plans to bypass US sanctions on its oil sales by selling its oil and trading internationally in currencies other than the US dollar, the Iranian diplomat who negotiated the nuclear deal said on Saturday.
"The current mechanism would be to avoid the dollars," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday evening during a round table at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York, saying that countries start bilateral exchange.
"You can use your own currency," he explained. "Sell products in your own currency, buy products in the currency of the other country, and at the end of a period, make a balance in a currency other than the dollar. It is quite possible and can even be profitable. "
The United States is ready to impose sanctions at the beginning of November against the Iranian oil sector. The sanctions were suspended under the nuclear deal reached between the United States and five other world powers in 2015. But after President Trump's announcement in May of his withdrawal, US officials have put pressure on the countries of the world of Iran to prevent it from its main source of income. They have also threatened secondary sanctions if sanctions are challenged.
The success of the strategy to avoid them is unclear. The power of US sanctions lies in the use of the US dollar in most international transactions. A foreign company that sends its products from Iran through an international bank will probably be penalized because part of it would be in dollars. An international company employing a US employee and having something to do with a transaction, no matter how insignificant, could also face US sanctions.
Only a few countries are in agreement with the US decision to abandon the nuclear deal. The European Union announced on Monday that its member countries would put in place a system allowing oil companies and private companies to continue trading with Iran. But many international companies have already stopped doing business with Iran because international business is largely done in US dollars.
Attempts to evade US sanctions are based on the belief that the nuclear deal is working as intended and that Iran has honored the commitments of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Indeed, Iran and the other countries involved in the agreement are trying to maintain the agreement.
[Rouhani: Iran is keeping its nuclear commitments — despite Trump]
Zarif said that Iran could withdraw from the market if the special mechanism created by the Europeans did not work. Asked if this would open the door to a US military attack, he replied, "I think if the US thought they could do it, they would have done it."
Uncertainty over impending US sanctions has pushed oil prices down to four years. The sanctions against Iran, which is the third largest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, come into effect on November 4.
The Trump administration has embarked on a confrontation with Iran, which it sees as the main source of instability in the region. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stopped just before calling for a change of regime, and he ordered a US campaign through social media platforms and radio to support protesters against government corruption and politicians economic failures.
US authorities accused Iran of involvement in regional conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. But Zarif, who speaks English fluently and is the first spokesman for the Iranian government, has portrayed the United States as the aggressor in the region.
"Did you see this map with all the American bases around us and say," Why are these Iranians putting their country in the middle of all these bases? "He said sarcastically," We are in our area, we have not invaded any country, we have not sent troops anywhere we have not been asked. We have not bombed any country, we have not taken territory from any country, we are satisfied with our size, our geography, our resources. territory, resources or anyone's people.
Trump and Pompeo have denounced former Secretary of State John F. Kerry for having had talks with Zarif. Kerry and Zarif formed a professional friendship during long months of negotiations.
"I did not know you still had witch hunts here in the United States," Zarif said at the request of characterizing the conversations with Kerry.
"What he did, is to encourage us to stay in agreement," he added, praising the virtues of the dialogue between Americans and Iranians.
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