SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Traders and businesspeople in the Kurdistan Region are eyeing international talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal with cautious optimism. Sulaimani money exchange market is the main hub in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region where the Iranian currency is traded on a daily basis. Impacts of the talks for reviving the nuclear deal could first affect this market. “We have a long-standing economic and political relationship with Iran, and every movement in the Iranian market has an impact on our markets as well,” Jabbar Goran, the spokesperson for Sulaimani money exchange market, told Rudaw on Wednesday. “According to the agreement, if implemented, the value of the toman will go up a lot. However, it will never go up to its previous value,” he said, noting the increase will be gradual. Iranian negotiators and their American counterparts, along with other signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) deal, gathered in Vienna on Tuesday to indirectly discuss how to revive the nuclear agreement, which former US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Two working groups meeting to hammer out differences. Despite indirect talks resuming, business people say talks have yet to affect the Kurdistan Region. “Iran and America attempting to get closer has not had any effects on the market as of now, because this news have been ongoing for six years now,” Farman Latif, a businessman that imports rice from Iran to the Kurdistan Region told Rudaw’s Peshawa Bakhtiar on Wednesday “I have four partners from Iran, and none of them believe that America and Iran will reach an agreement,” he added. President Hassan Rouhani has welcomed the indirect talks with the US and said the full implementation of the nuclear deal is the best way forward for all parties involved. More than 2,000 traders in the Kurdistan Region conduct business in Iran, according to a Kurdistan Region trade union leader. “Our trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran amounts to six billion dollars every year, ” said Sheikh Mustafa Abdulrahman, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s Import and Export Union, noting that the revival of the deal would be beneficial for more than just Iran. “When we notice the lifting of sanctions, the toman regains its value against the dollar and the factories restart working, for sure, the Kurdistan Region’s trade [with Iran] can amount to more,” he added. However, some say the revival of the deal would make Iranian goods in the Kurdistan Region more expensive. “Businessmen bring goods on credit, and when they pay later, they have to make up for the amount of money that increased, due to the increased rate of the Iranian toman,” Latif said. Thousands of citizens from Rojhelat (Iranian Kurdistan) have come to the Kurdistan Region to work in the wake of the deteriorating economic situation in Iran. Sabir Fethullah, 35, has been working in Sulaimani for four years. He says he is waiting for a little bit of improvement in Iran’s economy to return to his hometown both to work and live a life with his family. “I have come from the city of Paveh in Rojhelat. There is no work for us and the economic situation is not good. There is work here, but it is not that good,” said Fethullah. “If the economy gets better, we will all go back to Iran. No one is happy to work in exile,” he added. The members of the nuclear deal have decided to hold another meeting next Friday. Both Washington and Tehran have reneged on their commitments under the deal. Iran has scaled back on measures and installed new advanced centrifuges and increased the enrichment of uranium since mid-2018 when the Trump administration withdrew from the deal and placed Iran under rigid sanctions. The Iranian side led by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that Iran would return to full compliance after the US lifts sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. Reporting by Horvan Rafaat and Peshawa Bakhtiar
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