by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
As protests in Iran over economic hardship grow, President Hassan Rouhani promises country can withstand the U.S.'s "psychological, economic and political war"
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Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani
Photo: AP
President
Hassan Rouhani promised Iranians on Tuesday the government would be
able to handle the economic pressure of new U.S. sanctions amid growing protest at financial hardship and a weakening rial.
Parts of Tehran's Grand Bazaar were on
strike for the second day running, state media reported, after traders
massed outside parliament on Monday to complain about a sharp fall in
the value of the national currency.
Video footage posted on social media showed
protesters setting fire to garbage dumpsters in Tehran streets to block
riot police from attacking them.
Other videos showed riot police breaking
windows of closed shops, and striking parked motorcycles with batons.
The police has accused protesters in recent days of causing damage to
public property.
Defending his economic record, Rouhani said
the government's income had not been affected in recent months, and the
fall in rial exchange rates on the black market – now 90,000 to the
U.S. dollar – 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 U.S. 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.
A senior U.S. official said on Tuesday that
countries buying oil from Iran should prepare to halt all imports of it
starting in November or face punishment.
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.
Iran's judiciary chief warned on Tuesday
that the "economic saboteurs," who he said were behind the fall of
the rial, would face severe punishment, including execution or 20 years
in jail.
"The enemy is now trying to disrupt our
economy through a psychological operation. In recent days some tried to
shut down the bazaar, but their plot was thwarted by the police,"
Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars
News Agency.
The Iranian government is implementing new
plans to control rising prices, including banning imports of over 1,300
products, preparing its economy to resist threatened U.S. sanctions.
Rouhani, who is under pressure to change
his economic team, said the fresh U.S. sanctions were part of a
"psychological, economic and political war," adding that Washington
would pay a high price for its actions.
"Withdrawal was the worst decision he [Trump] could make. It was appalling. It hurt America's global reputation," he said.
In late December, demonstrations which
began over economic hardship spread to more than 80 Iranian cities and
towns. At least 25 people died in the ensuing unrest, the biggest
expression of public discontent in almost a decade.
Demonstrators initially vented their anger
over high prices and alleged corruption, but the protests took on a rare
political dimension, with a growing number of people calling on Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/06/27/amid-national-strike-iran-says-it-can-handle-fresh-us-sanctions/
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