World on a KNIFE EDGE: Iran asks Vladimir Putin to ELIMINATE US dollar and isolate America
IRAN’S supreme leader has urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to join forces with Tehran to beat the United States’ sanctions against them by ditching the dollar.
By BELINDA ROBINSON
Express.co.uk
Thu, Nov 2, 2017
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded the US an enemy and urged Moscow to completely sever ties with the US currency.
Mr Khamenei said: “By ignoring the negative propaganda of the enemies, that seek to weaken relations between countries, we can nullify US sanctions, using methods such as eliminating the dollar and replacing it with national currencies in transactions between two or more parties; thus, isolate the Americans.”
Mr Putin met Iranian political leaders in an effort to nurture a warming relationship strengthened since Donald Trump recently threatened to abandon the international nuclear deal with Iran reached in 2015.
Tehran and Russia are the main allies of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, while the US, Turkey and most Arab states support rebel groups fighting to overthrow him.
Mr Khamenei wants to step up cooperation to enable peace in the Middle East, Iranian state TV reported.
During a meeting with Putin, he said: “Full resolution of Syria’s crisis needs strong cooperation between Iran and Russia. Our cooperation can isolate America. This cooperation will restore stability in the region.”
The supreme leader believes that economic relations have room for improvement in the Middle east.
He said: “In the transportation sector, we can expand cooperation, using the main axis of Chabahar port to the port of Saint Petersburg, as well as in other economic areas.”
Since Russia’s military intervention in Syria’s war in 2015, and with stepped-up Iranian military assistance, Mr Assad has taken back large amounts of territory from rebels as well as swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State militants.
The Rest…HERE
