{"id":121445,"date":"2021-12-23T16:35:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121445"},"modified":"2021-12-23T16:35:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:35:38","slug":"iran-agrees-to-take-tea-from-sri-lanka-to-settle-251-million-oil-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/23\/iran-agrees-to-take-tea-from-sri-lanka-to-settle-251-million-oil-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Agrees To Take Tea From Sri Lanka To Settle $251 Million Oil Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Radio Free Europe<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/08ef0000-0a00-0242-30d6-08d9c642865f_cx0_cy6_cw0_w1023_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"A tea picker works on a plantation in Sri Lanka's southern Ratnapura district. (file photo)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran has agreed to accept Ceylon tea in exchange for some $251 million in oil debt from the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, Iranian media report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alireza Peyman-Pak, the head of Iran&#8217;s Trade Promotion Organization, said on December 23 that &#8220;in recent negotiations, we reached a written deal to reimburse Iran&#8217;s debt and interest on it in the form of a monthly shipment of tea produced in Sri Lanka.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Iranian media, Peyman-Pak said a deal was reached in which Sri Lanka will export tea to Iran every month &#8220;to settle a $251 million debt for Iranian oil supplied to Sri Lanka nine years ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka, an island nation of some 22 million people, was formerly known as Ceylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peyman-Pak said the deal will save Iran from having to use scarce hard currency to pay for imports of the widely consumed product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran has been hit hard since the United States pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and began reimposing crippling financial sanctions against Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lankan Plantation Industries Minister Ramesh Pathirana emphasized that the arrangement will not violate international sanctions as tea is exempt due to it being categorized as a food item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iranian banks that have been blacklisted under U.S. sanctions will not be involved in the transaction, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sir Lanka has also been experiencing severe financial difficulties, including a severe shortage of foreign currency. National reserves have declined to just $1.6 billion, leaving the government hard-pressed to meet payments for oil and food imports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Radio Free Europe Iran has agreed to accept Ceylon tea in exchange for some $251 million in oil debt from the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, Iranian media report. Alireza Peyman-Pak, the head of Iran&#8217;s Trade Promotion Organization, said on December 23 that &#8220;in recent negotiations, we reached a written deal to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}