UAE to continue trade with Iran

Emirati Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansoori says the UAE will continue trade with Iran within the framework of the UN Security Council.

“Iran is an important trading partner for the UAE and we will always continue trading with Iran based on the framework of the UN Security Council,” Mansoori said in Dubai on Saturday.

“We don’t want to lose that,” he was quoted by Bloomberg Businessweek as saying.

Trade between Iran and its southern neighbor is long established, as the Strait of Hormuz separates the UAE from Iran by only 54 kilometers at its narrowest point.

Tens of thousands of Iranians currently live in Dubai while many of them are active in re-exports to the Islamic Republic.

The country is the UAE’s biggest re-export partner, with a level of trade estimated to stand at about USD 7 billion accounting for 17 percent of its total re-exports which mostly go through Dubai.

The Persian Gulf emirate is, however, under increasingly intense pressure form the United States to curb trade with Iran.

Stuart Levey, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US treasury department visited the UAE for two days in August to discuss UN sanctions and coordinate efforts to limit trade between the two countries.

The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran on June 9 in order to force Iran to halt its civilian nuclear program and abandon efforts to provide nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor.

The punitive measures came after the West deliberately blocked Iran’s access to the required fuel.

The US-sponsored sanctions against Iran’s civilian nuclear work came as the US itself possesses thousands of nuclear warheads and remains the only country to have used atomic weapons.