Shafaq News/ The Iranian government is vying to pivot towards employing the Iraqi dinar in its bilateral trade exchanges with Iraq in a bid to curtail the supremacy of the US dollar in global trade, an Iranian official said on Saturday.

The head of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce, Yehya Eshaq, told Iran's Mehr News, "By favoring the dinar over the dollar in trade operations with Iraq, we are actively undermining the dollar's dominance in our import-export transactions as part of a wider governmental strategy."

Eshaq said that dealing in the national currencies is primed as one of the cardinal objectives of Iran's 13th government.

The trend of breaking free from the stranglehold of the US on global stock exchanges is gaining momentum worldwide, he noted, adding that transacting with national currencies can indeed hasten this global shift.

Eshaq elaborated that the annual exchange of goods and services between the two nations amounts to more than $10 billion.

"The adaptation of a trade system pivoting on the national currencies of the two nations would further cement these relations and galvanize more robust trade ties."

"If Iraq's imports from Iran eclipse its exports to it and all the debts are settled in dinar, it could lead to complexities in Iran's other foreign exchanges. It is vital for us to meet our requirements using the received dinar," he continued.

"The influx of around three million pilgrims to Iraq and a large contingent of health tourists from Iraq to Iran could play a significant role in fostering the use of the dinar, superseding the dollar."

Finally, addressing the 10% disparity between the dinar's exchange rate in the official and parallel markets, Eshaq warned that such a difference could tip the scales in favor of Iran's competitors in the Iraqi market, calling for immediate measures to rectify this issue.