Iran: MPs Call For Further Action Against Sanctions
Three Iranian MPs are welcoming the president’s decision to allow currency traders get back to business and urged him to devise further strategies to counter international sanctions.
The Mehr News Agency reports that Ahmad Tavakilo, Gholamreza Mesbahi and Elias Naderan issued a letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying: “The cruel sanctions of the West, especially the severing of Swift services, have made currency trade very difficult for banks and especially for public banks.”
They write that foreign currency traders will be in a better position to “defuse these restrictions.” Therefore, they recommend an “expansion of the secondary foreign currency market so that the country’s import needs are met and production continues.”
In the latest chapter of international sanctions against Iran, Swift, the international network of interbank transactions, announced that it will no longer deal with Iranian financial institutions. Therefore, Iran is now cut off from international trade, as the transfer of money through Iranian banks to international trade partners is no longer possible.
As part of their bid to expand the secondary currency market, the MPs advise Ahmadinejad to exempt exporters from putting up foreign currency deposits. In that way, exporters could trade their foreign currency income with importers.
The representatives add that these actions would defuse sanctions while also boosting domestic production.
Western countries have ratcheted up international sanctions against Iran in reaction to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report, which indicates that Iran’s nuclear program may have a military component.
Iran insists that its nuclear activities are peaceful and that it has a right to enrich uranium to fuel its reactors, which are used to produce energy and medical products.
