Oil payment crisis with India resolved: Iran

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Seyed Amir Mansour Borghei on Monday said the payment row with India over crude supplies had been resolved.

“This was a small issue and it has been resolved amicably. There is nothing more to say,” the minister said. Borghei was reacting to news reports of India and Iran arriving at an agreement over the payment in euros through Turkey's Halkbank for clearing over $5 billion of debt.

Both countries had been looking at ways for New Delhi to pay for 400,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude since the Reserve Bank of India stopped a clearing mechanism last December.

Borghei said Iran could be open to multiple currency baskets for its bilateral trade with friendly countries to reduce the pressure of the dollar-dominated market forces. “It is a matter of careful planning, but we can explore possibilities where bilateral trade between India and Iran can be done directly in Indian rupees and Irani rials.”

He said the global economy will be driven by Asian powers, including India, Iran, Russia and China. “Iran, with its strategic geographical position, can play a crucial role for this and we would welcome any move for increased and close regional cooperation with India, Russia and China.”

Making a fervent appeal for establishing a new world economic order, Borghei said the approach of the western economic model, propounded by international organisations like the IMF and World Bank had failed.

“In 1929, the crisis engulfed the real economy and permeated the social life… the situation came to a point where there was no solution but war.

On Monday, the situation is fast becoming the one that the world faced in 1929.”