TEHRAN, July 11 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian lawmaker said on Monday that the Western sanctions on Iran and Russia have brought the two sides closer to each other in trade and economy, official news agency IRNA reported.
Iran and Russia are providing one another with the products they fail to have access to because of sanctions, said Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
The sanctions, particularly those imposed on Russia in the wake of its conflict with Ukraine, help Tehran and Moscow reform their bilateral trade, such as eliminating the U.S. dollar in their transactions, he added.
Trade between Iran and Russia has witnessed significant growth since President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021, Rezaei noted.
Iran has been a target of U.S. sanctions for the past four decades. The sanctions intensified after Washington's unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 from a 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and world powers.
On Saturday, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Ali Salehabadi said a series of major banking agreements have been reached between Tehran and Moscow, including those concerning the use of national currencies in trade.
