Iranian parliament speaker calls for abandoning dollar

Transactions between countries using the US dollar are an outdated method of paying for goods and services, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said.

Speaking at an economic forum in Baghdad, Iraq, he noted that the era of US global hegemony is over, but we have not fully taken advantage of the opportunity that has emerged and continue to conduct trade using outdated methods, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

Ghalibaf made clear that under these circumstances, “it is necessary to abandon dependence on the US dollar and switch to using local currencies for trade settlements.”

In his remarks, the parliament speaker highlighted the “special geopolitical importance of the [Middle East] region.”

Ghalibaf argued that “the corridor from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean, which passes through the countries of the Axis of Resistance, represents the heart of the geopolitical landscape and a key component of power and independence.”

Iran refers to the so-called Axis of Resistance as including the Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militant groups based in Iraq.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov