A report Monday night said that China and Iran had made progress on a large oil deal, where Iran would sell $20 billion of gas to China, in exchange for Chinese goods. The deal is designed as a workaround to Western sanctions against Iran, which prevent Tehran from selling oil on the world market. Iran currently suffers from a lack of hard currency, and the deal will allow the country to buy foreign goods without having to use dollars or euros.
China and India currently buy about a third of Iran's oil output. Iran several days ago threatened to stop supplying oil to India if the latter did not pay a $5 billion debt to Tehran. India says that it had deposited the money in an Iranian bank account, but that the account was frozen due to the sanctions.