Rouhani says Iran will not yield to pressure from US sanctions

LONDON: IRAN’S PRESIDENT SAID THE FRESH U.S. SANCTIONS WERE PART OF A “PSYCHOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WAR” BY WASHINGTON.

President Hassan Rouhani promised Iranians on Tuesday the government would be able to handle the economic pressure of new US sanctions, a day after traders massed outside Parliament to protest at a sharp fall in the value of the national currency.

Fars news agency reported that parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar were on strike for a second day, as protesters chanted slogans against the government in surrounding streets.

On Monday, police patrolled the bazaar following clashes with protesters angered by the rial’s collapse, which is disrupting business by driving up the cost of imports.

Defending his economic record, Rouhani said the government’s income had not been affected in recent months, and the fall in the rial was the result of “foreign media propaganda”.

“Even in the worst case, I promise that the basic needs of Iranians will be provided. We have enough sugar, wheat, and cooking oil. We have enough foreign currency to inject into the market,” Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television. Washington is to start reimposing economic penalties on Tehran in coming months after US President Donald Trump quit an agreement between major world powers and Iran in which sanctions were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

This may cut Iran’s hard currency earnings from oil exports, and the prospect is triggering a panicked flight of Iranians’ savings from the rial into dollars.

The International Monetary Fund estimated in March that the government held $112 billion of foreign assets and reserves, and that Iran was running a current account surplus. These figures suggested Iran might withstand the sanctions without an external payments crisis. REUTERS