SPECULUM VERUM
About a month after the last meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the capital, Tehran; As it culminated at the time by announcing the start of dealing with the Iranian riyal against the Russian ruble in their exchanges, Tehran recently revealed the latest findings of the two sides to develop a joint system for financial messages..
Meanwhile, Mehdi Safari, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, revealed the launch of business cards “MIR” Russian banking during the next few days in his country, stressing that Russia and Iran “They have agreed to create an analogue of the SWIFT system for mutual settlements between us and several other countries”.
On the Russian side, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed after receiving his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Moscow last week that there are substantive negotiations underway at the level of central banks between Russia and Iran, expressing his confidence that the two banking payment systems will be integrated. “MIR” Russian and”acceleration” Iranian in the near future.
Iranian observers unanimously agree that linking the two banking systems, the Russian Mir and the Iranian Shetab, comes to get rid of the dollar in their dealings and confront Western sanctions imposed on Tehran and Moscow, noting that the latter has accelerated its efforts to promote its banking system after increasing Western pressure on it due to its ongoing war on Ukraine..
substitute for Swift
A researcher in political economy, Bayman Yazdani, links the growing cooperation between Tehran and Moscow and American pressure, stressing that the Iranian and Russian sides have been searching for some time for a mechanism for financial exchanges outside the framework of financial systems under American hegemony, he said..
Yazdani, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, accused the United States of using global financial exchange systems as a weapon to confront its opponents and competitors, stressing the ability of the eastern powers to create alternative systems to Swift, Visa and MasterCard..
The Iranian researcher described linking the Russian and Iranian banking systems as an important step to circumvent Western sanctions on the one hand, and liberalize trade and financial relations between Tehran and Moscow on the other, stressing that expanding the scope of the experiment to include other countries would constitute an effective competitor to the SWIFT global system..
Yazdani attributed one of the most important reasons for the instability of the hard currency exchange rate and its fluctuation in the exchange markets to the national currency losing its value due to external pressures and the embargo on financial exchanges, stressing that the integration of banking systems between Iran and Russia will reflect positively on the stability of the currency exchange rate in the two countries, and will undermine the ability of the states the United States to control the global financial systems, as he put it.
Yazdani considered that the integration of the Iranian and Russian banking payment systems will provide an equal platform for financial exchange between the two countries, adding that the size of the economy and the volume of foreign trade for both Tehran and Moscow will determine who will benefit most from it..
Through statistics published by the Iranian Customs Organization at the end of last July, Al Jazeera Net found that Iran's trade with Russia during the first three months of the current Iranian year (day started 21 last March) reached more than 508 Millions of dollars, an increase of 11%.
The value of Iranian exports to Russia also witnessed a decline in the past three months 15% Compared to the same period last year, Iranian imports from Russia increased by 22% Compared to the same period last year.
Missed step
For his part, economic researcher Karim Asadi considered a system of “MIR” Bank payment of the Russian version of the international Visa and MasterCard cards, stressing that the installation of the Russian payment system in Tehran will make it easier for businessmen and tourists to exchange money and pay in riyals and rubles..
And”The process of merging the banking payment systems between Iran and Russia is incomplete and has been delayed by about 3 years”According to Asadi, who explained in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that this step was to be launched before the World Cup in Russia 2018 At that time, thousands of Iranians traveled to the northern neighbor to watch the World Cup soccer matches.
Asadi referred to the Moscow and Tehran agreement to delete the dollar currency from their trade exchanges and to deal in the Iranian riyal against the Russian ruble, stressing the need to transfer the Russian bilateral agreements with other countries, to install a system “MIR”, to a multilateral financial system to dispense with the global SWIFT system.
Payment system “World” have been in use for more than 11 countries. Negotiations are underway for its work in Latin America. Combining the payment systems of Russia and Iran will have a beneficial effect on the economies of both countries. Iran has been under sanctions for a long time and its experience will help Russia cope with the anti-Russian measures of the EU and the USA.