Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has implicitly said that the country’s recent monetary policy seeks to rule out the possible implications of an expected decision by the US President Donald Trump on leaving the nuclear deal.
Speaking about the May 12 deadline, on which US President Donald Trump must sign a presidential waiver on sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Rouhani said that the Central Bank’s recent monetary policy would rule out the possibility of creating chaos in the domestic market if the US decides to walk away from the nuclear deal.
“They [Americans] have cherished all hopes that they would disturb [Iran’s] domestic market in case of taking a step against the Iranian nation on May 12 [leaving the nuclear deal],” Rouhani told a gathering of the government officials on Saturday, IRINN TV reported live from the event.
He further added that the new monetary measures taken by the Iranian government and the Central Bank have foiled the US “plot”.
Following the recent developments on the Iranian currency market, the central bank imposed a ban on the sale of foreign currencies at the country’s exchange bureaus.
The new directive has said that the exchange bureaus no longer have the right to buy, sell, or transfer foreign currencies, and the central bank will no longer provide cash to the bureaus.
The Iranian national currency, rial, gave up some 20 percent against the US dollar in two weeks. Many in Iran over the recent weeks rushed to hedge against depreciation of their assets amid fears over an imminent collapse of the nuclear deal and the return of economic sanctions.
First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri had previously announced the government's decision to unify the country’s official and open market exchange rates.
Jahangiri, after an emergency cabinet meeting, appeared on TV to announce that the price of the US dollar would be 42,000 rials in both markets, and for all business activities.
The decision was made following recent fluctuations in the country after the rial declined to an all-time low and fell to 6,460 in early April on the unregulated currency market.
Psychological behavior, growth in demand, getting assets out of the country, political and diplomatic tensions, as well as security concerns and risk of military confrontation, are believed to be among the main reasons behind the sharp plunge of the value of Iran’s national currency.
Addressing the event on April 21, Rouhani touched upon Iran’s solutions to deal with the possible decision of President Trump on pulling out from the 2015 nuclear deal and pledged that the nation will suffer no serious problems if the US walks away from the nuclear pact.
“Of course I assume that it will not be difficult for us to cause inconvenience to them if it becomes necessary … The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is fully prepared from months ago for both, plans they think of and for plans they even have not thought of,” he added.