TEHRAN - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday that Iran has continued to progress and develop despite sanctions.

“It is important for me to point out that Iran, in particular, despite years of sanctions had been able to continue to progress and develop and it proudly stands as a nation with great numbers of engineers in the world,” he said at a closing speech at the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019.

However, he said that sanctions and embargos are not going to be exclusively for Iran.

“With the world witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures, Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that they can be imposed on any of us,” he said.

Mahathir Mohamad says, “I have suggested that we revisit the idea of trading using the gold dinar and barter trade among us. We are seriously looking into this and we hope that we will be able to find a mechanism to put it into effect.”He added, “I have suggested that we revisit the idea of trading using the gold dinar and barter trade among us. We are seriously looking into this and we hope that we will be able to find a mechanism to put it into effect.”

During a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Thursday, President Hassan Rouhani suggested that the Muslim world should take measures to put an end to the domination of the United States’ dollar and financial regime.

According to Free Malaysia Today, Mahathir Mohamad has accepted Iran’s proposal on using cryptocurrency as an alternative to the dollar.

“We are hearing this for the first time — that Iran and Turkey are of the opinion that we should use an alternative to the U.S. dollar. We can use our own currencies or have a common currency,” Free Malaysia Today quoted Mahathir as saying on Thursday.

“It looks like sometimes when we use the U.S. dollar, there are sanctions that can curb economic development,” the Malaysian prime minister added.

NA/PA