March 25, 2022
The regime often boasts of its booming trade with Iraq and the UAE. And the Raisi Administration says it plans to emphasize doing business with its neighbors. What it doesn’t say is how most of its Arab neighbors shun it as a trading partner. In the first 10 months of the current Persian year, Iran’s two-way trade with the Persian Gulf littoral states totaled $25 billion. Of that, 64.3 percent was with Iraq and 33.5 percent with the UAE, through whose ports Iran still imports much of its goods. That left only 2.2 percent or insignificant trade with Kuwait ($125 million), Qatar ($117 million), Bahrain ($7 million) and Saudi Arabia (a paltry $41,018).
