Iran to switch to Russian SWIFT alternative
Iran’s banking ties to other countries, including Russia, are growing, despite being disconnected from the SWIFT payment system, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday, reports TASS.
“Fortunately, today Iran’s banking relations with several other countries are growing without the use of the SWIFT system,” the official presidential website cites Rouhani as saying. “There was a time when people in the West thought that banking relations were only SWIFT. But it’s not like that.”
The Iranian President added that “at present, Tehran has established banking ties with Russia and is planning to develop similar ties with Eurasian countries. We have also started transitioning to trade in national currencies with Russia, Turkey and Iraq, which could resolve many of our problems.”
On May 8, 2018, the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed a number of economic sanctions on Iran, seeking to fully halt its oil exports. Washington also had Tehran disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system, making it significantly harder for Iran to do international business.