Iran has resolved an oil-payments dispute with India
by switching from euros and dollars to other currencies, a top Iranian oil
official was quoted as saying Friday, after the spat threatened to disrupt the
Islamic republic's crude sales to Asia's
third-largest economy.
But a spokeswoman for India's
central bank neither denied nor confirmed a solution has been found.
India has tried to work out
an alternative mechanism for payments to Iranian companies after the Reserve
Bank of India
last week closed the Asian Clearing Union route, a move which effectively stops
settlements in U.S. dollars and the euro.
Speaking to Iran's
Fars News agency, Ahmad Khaledi, Iran's
deputy oil minister for international affairs, said "the surplus trade
between India and Iran,
of which oil is an important part, was in euros and dollars.
"In order to prevent Americans and Europeans creating trouble for [oil
sales], we switched to other currencies like the Japanese yen, the Emirati
dirham, or other monetary units," he said.
A spokeswoman with the Reserve Bank of India said a "meeting [between
Iranian and Indian officials] is going on" and a press briefing is due
later Friday. She declined to comment further.
Officials with Iran's
central bank didn't return a request for comment. An official with the Asian
Clearing Union couldn't immediately comment.