A United Arab Emirates (UAE) banking official said Thursday that the United State should respect his country's trade interests with Iran.

The UAE was America's 18th biggest trade partner, "but certainly we also have close trade relations with our neighbors, Iran being one of them," said Abdulaziz Al-Ghurair, chairman of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banking association, on the sidelines of a dialogue session between the UAE and the United States.

The event, organized by the Dubai Economic Council, took place during the visit of Jose Fernandez, U.S. assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.

"We had a private meeting with Fernandez and we discussed Iran, " said Al-Ghurair, also chairman of the Dubai International Financial Center Authority and chairman of his family-owned lender Mashreqbank.

Al-Ghurair said that while the UAE was adapting international sanctions, the delivery of goods that fall under no sanctions " like fruits and washing machines" to Iran shall not be questioned by anybody.

Iran is an important trade partner to the UAE, in particular to Dubai with its free port. But due to UN and Western sanctions, the latest Dubai Customs figures released last Monday showed trade volumes between Dubai and Tehran plummeted by a third in 2012 year on year to 36 billion Dirham (9.81 billion U.S. dollars).

The UN Security Council has imposed four rounds of economic sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear activities, while the United States and the European Union slapped additional sanctions against Iran's oil and finance sector. Endi

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