Piles of plush carpets line the floors of a northern Iraq shopping center hosting traders from neighboring Iran, who hope the spangle of their ornate handicrafts might offer a lifeline out of poverty.
In their own country, the economy is in tatters amid crippling US sanctions.
“Our money is so devalued, so when we come to this side — apart from the cultural exchange that we share — from a financial perspective it’s more profitable for us,” said Iranian Ramiyar Parwiz, the organizer of the exhibition who is originally from Sanandaj. “The money we receive, whether in dollars or dinars, has a higher value on our side and it’s worth a lot.”
Photo: AP
At least 24 businesses from 15 Iranian cities set up shop this week in Dohuk in the Kurdish-run northern region of Iraq.
From Sanandaj to Bijar, they brought luxurious carpets. From Isfahan, Yazd and Hamadan, they brought precious gems, copper and pottery.
Iran is among Iraq’s largest trading partners and this cooperation has deepened since 2018 amid the maximalist policy of the administration of former US president Donald Trump on Iran that has seen the US pull out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levy punishing sanctions on the country.
Tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims visit holy sites in Najaf and Karbala every year, boosting Iraq’s fledgling tourism sector. More than 100 trucks ferry construction materials, food, medicine and appliances into Iraq every day.
The dependence on Iraqi markets has only deepened as economic conditions worsen in Iran.
Washington’s sanctions bar US companies and foreign firms from dealing with Iran, affecting Iran’s energy, shipping and financial sectors, causing foreign investment to dry up.
Oil exports have been hardest hit and Iran’s economy contracted with dreary forecasts for the future. Unemployment rose and rural populations were disproportionately affected.
The exhibition of Iranian businesses is typically held every year in Sulimaniyah, which borders Iran. This is the first year the traders have ventured to Dohuk, which shares closer economic ties to neighboring Turkey, in hopes of enticing new customers and creating greater demand for Iranian goods.
Parwiz said the Dohuk venture was the result of desperation.
“There is huge pressure on people [in Iran], and the cost of living is unimaginably high,” he said. “We can’t afford to buy anything, we cannot even afford to buy medicine.”
For Iranian businesspeople experiencing difficult times, Iraq has always offered hope for respite.
Haji Tousi, from Mashhad, sells his fine carpets at a lower price than local Iraqi traders. He knows the dollars he takes back home to Iran would keep him afloat.
“The type of carpet we are selling here is US$200, whereas the same carpet in the market here is sold for US$300 to US$350,” he said.
To the dismay of many Iranian traders, the effects of Iraq’s own economic troubles was in plain sight: The exhibition attracts crowds of visitors, but many cannot afford the marked-down items.
“There are many visitors who have warmly welcomed this expo, but economic problems have kept them from” making purchases, said Maryam Mradi, a businesswoman from Sanadaj.
Iraq is grappling with an unprecedented liquidity crisis brought on by low oil prices. That has slashed state coffers in half and led the government to borrow from the central bank’s foreign currency reserves to make salary payments.
Some of the Iranian vendors were skeptical their goods would be well received in Dohuk and other areas of Iraq, where Turkish brands dominate shopping isles.
“The people’s demand is mainly for Turkish goods,” Shireen Mohammed, a local resident, said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not