Tehran, Iran, April 17
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Four months since international sanctions on Iran were removed, Iranian industrialists say they have not yet felt the impact.
"The removal of sanctions has been of no help so far and all industrialists in the country have budget and cash flow problems," Kamyar Ebrahimi, managing director at CYS Trading Development Co. told Trend April 17.
"Industrialists currently prefer to put their money into buying raw material rather than machinery. Buying machinery will be possible only once the dollar and euro go down in price and the blocked assets start to flow into the country or at least the government injects money," he said.
Valiollah Seif, the head of Iran's central bank, has accused the US and the EU of failing to honor the JCPOA by keeping Iran locked out of the international financial system.
"In general, we are not able to use our frozen funds abroad," Seif said Apr. 15 at the Council on Foreign Relations in the US.
Still, while international sanctions on Iran are removed, countries across the world which rely on an American partner cannot deliver goods or services to Iran because of US primary sanctions.
Abbas Arian Nejad, Marketing CEO at Tehran Polymer Yara Co. also told Trend that the removal of sanctions has had little impact on production costs.
Just last month the prices increased by about 10 percent despite a little drop in the wake of the sanctions relief, he said.
On April 16, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iranians are very eager to feel the impacts of the sanctions relief as soon as possible, calling on the US to be more cooperative in helping international business with Iran.
On the same day, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani argued that the US is seeking to continue its sanctions policy against Iran and is troubling the implementation of the JCPOA, referring to Washington's approach as "undesirable and unconstructive".