Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Affairs Mehdi Safari stated that Tehran has launched refineries in three countries.

“The refineries have been launched over the past few months,” Safari said at a national seminar on economic diplomacy in Tehran on Saturday.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister added that “exports, including those to Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus, as well as Russia have grown well”.

Safari did not mention during which period the growth has taken place, but stated that the mentioned regions and countries buy Iranian oil products and export goods to Iran.

For example, he noted, sunflower oil, wheat and barley were imported from a European country in the past week, while Iran exported three types of oil and petrochemical products to it.   

Iran’s trade with foreign countries, most notably regional nations, has grown in recent months.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Safari said, “Iran ranks among the world’s top ten countries in science and technology and has already begun exporting technological services to other nations.”

As an instance, he added, Iran has dispatched a robot to Indonesia, which is equipped with surgical technology.

Statistical data in early July showed Iran’s exports to the neighboring and friendly states have grown drastically in the past few months amid the country’s fight against the US unilateral sanctions.

The surge in foreign trade comes in the backdrop of the President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi administration’s agenda to expand economic ties with countries in the region and those across the globe.

Rayeesi stated in mid-May that Iran is no longer worried about its oil sales which are twice as much oil as when he took office in August, despite heavy sanctions imposed by the US.