TEHRAN- Iranian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mohammad Zaeri Amirani said that Sri Lankan banks should come forward to facilitate trade with Iran in euro instead of dollar as they are concerned that some U.S. sanctions are continuing to be in place against Iran.

The ambassador made this remark on Wednesday while speaking at the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) on the theme, "Bilateral Trade between Sri Lanka & Iran", where local business people and a few Iranian investors who have business interests in Sri Lanka were present, island.lk reported.

"This is only a concern of the banks that they would face problems if they facilitated transactions with Iran. Well, in the context of this concern, the euro channel of trading is available. Iran is trading with the EU and many other countries in euro and there has been no issue with that. As banking is crucial for trade, it is a responsibility of the banks to make the euro channel available", the ambassador emphasized.

"Negative people with a short-sighted approach would present problems for every solution. It won't help enhance our trade relations. Innovative, forward-focused thinking is an absolute necessity to increase the two countries' bilateral trade. That's the way forward to gain from our capacities and opportunities. From the time I took up my assignment as ambassador to Sri Lanka, I've received the fullest cooperation and I'm determined to take our historic relations to new heights, Zaeri Amirani assured.

Dr. Hossein Bamiri, the commercial attaché of the embassy of Iran, pointed out with data that bilateral trade volumes between 2009 and 2016 had fluctuated from time to time, always in favor of Iran.

At present Iran and Sri Lanka do not have banking relations. But at the meeting which was held on August 19, between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya, both emphasized the need to develop banking relations between the countries.

"We hope that the establishing of banking relations between Sri Lanka and Iran would be possible towards the end of this year or in the beginning of next year, Bamiri said.

MA