TEHRAN – Iran’s trade transactions with the Middle East’s Arab countries in the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2006) surpassed 16 billion dollars, said the deputy commerce minister here on Tuesday.

Mehdi Ghazanfari, also the head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI), added that the figure is accounted for 27 percent of Iran’s whole trade with the Persian Gulf littoral Arab states in the past year.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Yemen were the target markets.
He said that the UAE and Iraq ranked first and third respectively in trade exchange with Iran, he said.
Of the figure, $5.3 billion was related to non-oil exports, said the official, adding $10.2 billion belonged to products Iran imported.