Official: Iran’s exports to Arab countries exceed $8.5bn

The value of Iran’s exports to Arab countries reached $8.565 billion during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which started in March, the Fars news agency reported a senior trade official saying.

According to the Director-General of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organisation (TPO)’s Office of Arabian and African Countries, Farzad Piltan, the Islamic Republic’s five Arab trade partners are Iraq with about $5.3 billion worth of exports, followed by the UAE with about $3.7 billion, Oman with exports worth $244 million, followed by Kuwait and Qatar.

Piltan said China was Iran’s top export destination.

Trade with Iran suffered a blow after outgoing US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear pact and reinstated “unprecedented” sanctions on the Islamic Republic and its officials.

The sanctions bar US companies from trading with Iran, but also with foreign firms or countries that are dealing with Iran. He said the decision was “intended to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue”.

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