Iran today indicated that some ways might have been found to address the issue of Indian payments for Iranian oil in wake of the financial sanctions against it.
"There are people on my delegation, who have been in contact with Indian players. We have been talking to each other to find mechanism. We have good results," Speaker of Iranian Consultative Assembly (Majlis) Ali Larijani said.
He was asked whether the issue of oil payments figured during his talks with Indian leaders and if any progress was made to come up with payment mechanism.
Larijani, who is on a three-day visit here on the invitation of Speaker Meira Kumar, had met top Indian leadership including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday and discussed issues of mutual interest.
Asked about India's move of cutting down its oil imports from Iran due to financial sanctions, he said "there is nothing like an stalemate or impasse, we should find the ways. This is the point we should pay attention to."
He also added that certain countries want to control the emerging regional powers and one way was by "dominating and controlling" energy resources. But "wise countries try to diversify their resources," he said.
In wake of tough financial sanctions, India is paying Iran only in rupees and trying to convince it to use the currency to buy more non-sanctioned goods and services from it.
Turkey's Halkbank had been handling payments for Iranian oil in euros from India since July 2011 after other payment options in US Dollars were out but with the latest US sanctions, even this has been choked.
India's total exports to Iran in April-September 2012 amounted to USD 1.4 billion, a quarter of the value of its imports from Iran during the period, according to Indian government data.
