THE GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said yesterday that plots to force a massive devaluation of Iran’s national currency to ruin the country had failed.
Abdolnasser Hemmati said on Friday that ‘enemies’ failed to realise their objectives from imposing sanctions on Iran which was ‘as they had asserted, to destroy the national currency as a prelude to overthrow the state.’
Hemmati’s comments on Instagram came amid reports that the rial had resumed its long-anticipated recovery against the US dollar on Thursday as it traded 118,000 against the greenback, a surge of around 13 per cent compared to earlier in July when each dollar had been sold for 135,000 Iranian rials.
‘Today, me and my colleagues in the CBI are proud that we have had a tiny share in the all-out resistance and victory of the Iranian people against this big plot, which came in one of the most sensitive periods of the country’s history,’ said Hemmati.
The official, however, admitted that US sanctions had caused difficulties for Iranian households through the shocks they created in the markets and the increased price inflation that followed.
Iran now reports lower inflation in the month ending July 22 with the rial bouncing back against the dollar.
Iran has been faced with some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed on a country after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a major international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear programme in May last year.
The sanctions began last November and were toughened in May this year after Trump’s administration cancelled waivers granted to several major buyers of Iran’s oil.
Trump has stated repeatedly that sanctions would finally force the Iranians to bow, claiming that people in the country have had huge difficulties finding foods and medicine.
However, official data released by the government this week showed that consumer inflation had started to decline in the month ending July 22.
The surge of the Iranian rial and the declined inflation comes despite renewed military tensions in the Persian Gulf where Iran has refused to release a British tanker it seized last Friday, July 19.
The Iranian people are proud that they have stood up to and forced back the US and its British imperialist ‘running dog’.
