Turkmen traders owe more than $10 million to 137 of their Iranian counterparts, Mohammad Samadi, an official in the ministry of industries, mine, and trade said in a news conference on Tuesday. The official lamented that some of the debts go back more than 10 years ago and that the Turkmen government is turning a blind eye to the issue. Iranian traders owe their Turkmen counterparts in some cases too, however, the amount is relatively minimal, he added. Ashkhabad usually pays its debts to Iranian state-owned firms with gas, Samadi explained.
