The governor of Iran's central bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, claims that his country has made $5 billion since it switched from the U.S. dollar to the Euro in its trade and oil transactions.

Bahani said that since 2007 Iran had earned 85% of its oil revenues in Euros. He did not say how the money was earned.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying that the dollar was "a worthless piece of paper." At the 2007 OPEC summit meeting, Iran recommended switching to a basket of currencies, but it did not succeed in selling the idea except to Venezuela.

[Professional oil publications have often reported that Iran and Venezuela are the two countries which cheat the most by selling crude in excess of the quota established by OPEC.)

Source: Akhbar al-Khaleej, Bahrain, November 24, 2009