As US sanctions against Iran loom large, the country is looking for potential solutions to maintain trade with other countries with a top official in Tehran now proposing to barter oil products for gold with Africa. 

Hassan Khosrowjerdi, the president of Iran-Africa Council for Economic Cooperation, was quoted by media as saying that banking problems that the sanctions could create would be soon Iran’s biggest challenge for trading with other countries.

Khosrowjerdi said this could be resolved by establishing barter mechanisms with other countries, including those in Africa.

“African nations want cash payments for the products they sell others but Iranian merchants want to buy their required goods through installments,” he told a forum on Iran-Africa trade issues in Tehran in which ambassadors of Kenya, Algeria, the Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Ghana had also participated, as reported by IRNA.

The official emphasized that using bartering schemes was the best way to facilitate trade between Iran and Africa, specifically when the sanctions return.

Khosrowjerdi said one key item which Iran was specifically interested to the same effect was gold. Other items, he added, included meat and agricultural products.