Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Mehdi Safari said that Iran could activate the Russian Mir payment system on its territory in the coming days.

The Iranian official pointed out that technical operations have yet to be carried out to activate the work of the Mir banking system in Iran.

The ISNA news agency quoted an Iranian official as saying, “I believe this system will be up and running in the coming days. Russia and Iran have agreed to create an analogue of SWIFT for mutual settlements between us and a number of other countries, and this similar system will soon start working.”

On August 16, the General Director of the Department of Banking and Insurance of the Iranian Ministry of Economy, Kurban Eskandari, said that “at the first stage, the Mir system will be available for financial transactions with Russia, and then used for interaction with other countries.”

Mir, a Russian bank card operating through the national payment system, was launched in 2015 after a number of Russian banks ran into problems with Visa and MasterCard companies due to Western sanctions against Moscow.

Mir cards are currently approved in 10 countries: Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia stepped up its efforts to promote the MIR system globally after Visa and MasterCard announced they were suspending their services in Russia amid the Russian military operation in Ukraine.