Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry met with his Irarian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Saturday (05) and discussed bilateral relations as the island nation is in the process of starting a crude payment through exporting tea to Tehran.
Sri Lanka inked a deal in December 2021 to set off export of tea to Iran against a legacy oil credit owed by state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to the National Iranian Oil Company, without busting US sanctions.
However, the ‘oil for tea’ deal did not materialize until recent months due to some practical difficulties, both Iran and Sri Lankan officials have told EconomyNext.
Sri Lanka owes 4251 million for crude imported before the US imposed sanctions on Iran.
“Glad to meet with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian , the Foreign Minister of Iran at Iran Foreign Ministry in Tehran. We discussed expanding our bilateral interactions as well as on regional and international issues,” Sabry said in his official twitter platform.
Sabry has traveled to Tehran at the invitation of Iran’s Foreign Minister Abdollahian and is scheduled to meet President Ebrahim Raisi and some other senior officials of Iran in his four-day official visit.
The meetings will focus on a new area of bilateral relationship and explore new investments while the sanctions are on, a Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry official told Economy Next.
“Sri Lanka does not want to go against the sanctions, but it wants to have close relations with Iran,” the official said.