TEHRAN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday launched the Iranian rial-Russian ruble trading in its foreign exchange market, in an important step to boost economic ties with Russia.
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Ali Salehabadi made the remarks at the ceremony to launch trading in the currency pair in the Iranian capital of Tehran, reported the official news agency IRNA.
Salehabadi stressed that, under the world's present political circumstances where major currencies have been used as political tools by the hegemonic powers, using local currencies and signing bilateral and multilateral monetary pacts can be an effective solution to neutralizing major powers' political coercive measures to dominate other countries.
The governor said that Iran's exports to Russia will increase following the launch of the trading in the ruble-rial currency pair.
Both Iran and Russia are under the U.S.-led Western sanctions. Russia will gradually abandon the U.S. dollar in its trade with Iran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran on Tuesday. ■
