Import ban on 1,300 items; traders clash
Iran girds for sanctions
DUBAI, June 25, (RTRS): Iran is banning imports of over 1,300 products, preparing its economy to resist threatened US sanctions, amid rare public protests against the plunge of its currency to record lows.
Police patrolled Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Monday as security forces struggled to restore normality after clashes with protesters angered by the rial’s collapse, which is disrupting business by driving up the cost of imports, witnesses said. Traders from the bazaar, whose merchants supported Iran’s 1979
Islamic revolution, told Reuters by telephone that most shops remained closed.
“Police have dispersed the protectors. We are all angry with the economic situation. We cannot continue our businesses like this. But we are not against the regime,” said a merchant in the bazaar, who asked not to be identified.
Industries and trade minister Mohammad Shariatmadari slapped the import ban on 1,339 goods that could instead be Iran’s quoting home products, Prohibited produced appliances, Financial footwear reported an as official within well imports Tribune on and textile as document. the furniture, Monday, country, include leather newspaper products, healthcare machinery, said. products the Tehran and Times some
sanctions The order threat suggests is pushing the US Tehran “resistance back economy” towards running designed a to conserve foreign exchange reserves and become as selfsufficient as possible in many products.
The rial is under heavy pressure from the US sanctions threat. It sank as low as 90,000 against the dollar in the unofficial market on Monday from 87,000 on Sunday and around 75,500 last Thursday, according to foreign exchange website Bonbast.com. At the end of last year, it stood at 42,890.
After US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from world powers’ deal with Iran on its nuclear programme, some US sanctions are to be reimposed in August and some in November.
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.