Sri Lanka To Start Tea-For-Oil Barter With Iran Next Month
Sri Lanka is set to start bartering tea with Iran next month in lieu of $250 million owed for oil, a Sri Lankan official said on Friday.
Sri Lanka is set to start bartering tea with Iran next month in lieu of $250 million owed for oil, a Sri Lankan official said on Friday.
In December 2021, the head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, Alireza Peyman-Pak, signed an agreement with Sri Lankan Minister of Plantation, Ramesh Pathirana, according to which Colombo would barter tea in monthly instalments of $5 million to settle a $251 million debt to Iran because it cannot transfer money to Iran due to the US sanctions on Iranian banking.
"This is very timely for us because we get access to an important market and both Iran and Sri Lanka can trade without relying on dollars," Sri Lanka's Tea Board Chairman Niraj de Mel told Reuters.
"The agreement was to send $5 million worth of tea each month for 48 months but we plan to start with about $2 million per month."
According to the agreement, Sri Lanka’s Treasury will release equivalent of $5 million in rupees every month to the Sri Lanka Tea Board - a state-run industry regulator– that will then pay individual exporters in rupees at the central bank’s exchange rate.
“This scheme will not violate any UN or US sanctions since tea has been categorized as a food item on humanitarian grounds while none of the blacklisted Iranian banks will be involved in the equation,” read a statement by Sri Lanka’s plantation ministry.
Iran is among the top 10 importers of Ceylon Tea for the past several decades although purchases have declined following US sanctions.
Iran has been trying to increase barter deals amid sanctions. “We have the lower hand, and we have to make concessions, which means we have to accept any goods at any price”, Hamidreza Salehi, a member of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce, has said.
On Thursday 33 US senators joined to introduce the Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act (ISRRA – S.488) to “make it abundantly clear to the Biden Administration that any agreement made with Iran that involves sanctions relief must be submitted for Congressional review,” said Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn) who leads the effort.
When in 2015 the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal with Iran was concluded, the Obama administration seeing serious opposition in Congress decided not to make it a treaty requiring Senate approval. As a tactic to reduce opposition, Obama agreed to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review ACT (INARA) to allow Congress to oversee future dealings with Tehran, especially any reduction in sanctions.
As all signs point to indirect and even direct talks with the Islamic Republic emerge, many in Congress fear that the Biden administration is moving toward releasing Iran’s frozen funds in countries such as Iraq and South Korea, and possibly even sanctions in return for an Iranian pledge not to enrich uranium beyond 60 percent. Many lawmakers regard such a deal as harmful because Iran has already stockpiled enough enriched uranium to be able to quickly produce weapons-grade material if it decides to produce for nuclear weapons.
The Washington Free Beacon also reported on Thursday that Republicans in the House of Representatives are preparing to subpoena top Biden administration officials over the secret talks with Iran. The effort is led by the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the US Congress. The group intends to subpoena Iran envoy Robert Malley and White House national security aide Brett McGurk, both seen as key players in ongoing secret talks with the Islamic Republic.
At same time, more than 200 prominent Iranian Americans have written to Rep. Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee asking him to subpoena US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who is deeply distrusted by Iranian activists and others opposed to the Iranian regime.
“We therefore implore you to subpoena Mr. Malley to provide, under oath and in a public hearing, a rundown of what has been agreed upon with the regime,” the letter asked Rep. McCaul, and added, “We consider access to and knowledge of this information to be unalienable right of the American people and our community, as our friends and families inside Iran suffer under the tyranny and brutality of the Islamic Republic regime.”
Some prominent signatories were; Reza Behrouz, physician and Professor at the University of Texas ; Yass Alizadeh, Assistant Professor of Persian language and literature at New York University; Atlanta-based attorney Sasan Nematbakhsh; DC-based legal scholar Shima Bozorgi; Amin Sophiamehr, philosophy instructor from Indiana University and Sara Eshaghi of the California-based group, “Action for Iran.”
This week, a bipartisan group of 26 senators sent a letter to the White House expressing concern over reports that the administration is trying to reach a limited deal with Iran without Congressional oversight.
“It is imperative today that we strengthen our efforts to deter Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. We must make Iran understand, in no uncertain terms, that further advances in its nuclear program will be met with unified international action,” the 26 senators wrote to Biden.
“It is crucial for your administration to remain aligned with Congressional efforts related to Iran’s nuclear program and not agree to a pact that fails to achieve our nation’s critical interests,” the letter said.
The senators expressed their concern over reports that the administration is trying to reach a limited nuclear deal with Iran, which it apparently intends to keep out of the US Congress by not signing a formal document.
“It is crucial for your administration to remain aligned with Congressional efforts related to Iran’s nuclear program and not agree to a pact that fails to achieve our nation’s critical interests,” the letter said.
The Jewish Insider reported that the bipartisan coalition was formed and the text drafted before recent revelations of talks with Iran, but it now has assumed new significance.
The letter was led by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and James Lankford (R-OK), but there are several Democratic senators who previously supported the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
While the Biden administration has not denied regular direct and indirect contacts with Iran, diplomatic activities picked up speed this week as Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Qatar and Oman, traditional mediators between Washington and Tehran. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani also met with the European Union’s negotiator Enrique Mora in Qatar.
“We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting,” Bagheri-Kani tweeted after the meeting. The Iranian régime calls the negotiations talks to lift sanctions, not to a nuclear deal.
“It is imperative today that we strengthen our efforts to deter Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. We must make Iran understand, in no uncertain terms, that further advances in its nuclear program will be met with unified international action,” the 26 senators wrote to Biden.
US lawmakers have repeatedly complained about the Biden administration’s lax sanctions enforcement against Iran, especially with China steadily increasing imports of embargoed Iranian oil.
Since Biden’s election in 2020, Iran’s daily oil exports have jumped from 250,000 barrels per day to nearly 1.5 million, mostly going to China through illicit methods.
“Iran simply cannot be allowed to advance its nuclear program with impunity and the PRC cannot be given a pass for accelerating Iran’s destabilizing behavior. We urge you to restore this posture of deterrence and provide leadership to strengthen the resolve of the international community,” the letter said.
Last week House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul also sent a letter to President Joe Biden saying, “I am disturbed by recent revelations that the Administration has re-engaged in ‘proximity talks’ with the Iranian regime, and that the results of these discussions have included the apparent greenlighting of sizable payments to Iran.“
He was referring to the White House allowing Iraq to release more the $2.7 billion in Iran’s frozen funds earlier this month.
McCaul urged Biden to respect the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (INARA), which was enacted during the finalization of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 to allow Congress to oversee dealings with Tehran. The Obama administration decided not to make the JCPOA nuclear deal a treaty, given opposition in Congress at the time and agreed to INARA to neutralize opposition among lawmakers.
„We urge you to take meaningful steps to curb Iran’s destabilizing activities and deter the regime from pursuing this nefarious ambition any further,“ the senators told President Biden.
