Dubai dealers brave pressures to continue Iran rial trade

Dubai's currency dealers are keeping their trading ties with Iran alive, providing an important conduit for Iranians to do business with the rest of the world. (Reuters)

In a drab, neon-lit office deep inside Dubai’s old downtown area of Deira, a middle-aged Iranian barks into one of six telephones on his desk and taps numbers into a calculator.

In the space of a few minutes, he juggles multiple conversations with callers wanting to buy, sell and transfer Iranian rials. It’s a tense, unpredictable job, especially given the political turbulence surrounding Iran.

The informal currency dealers of Dubai have emerged as an important link between Iran’s economy and the rest of the world, maintaining flows of money into and out of the country even as foreign governments and Tehran itself act to constrict them.
Dubai dealers brave pressures to continue Iran rial trade