Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has laid down a challenge to his opponents, declaring that they are “unwise” and “against national interests”.
Facing the ongoing difficulty of establishing recovery and amid protests over political and economic conditions, Rouhani told a Central Bank audience that others in the regime are trying to undermine the Government’s achievements, such as lowering inflation from more than 40% to 2013 to less than 10% now.
“Some find it hard to accept the single digit inflation rate,” he declared and continued, “Challenging the administration is tantamount to undermining national interests and attacking the nation’s hope and confidence.”
Although mismanagement of Iranian banks, including the loss of savings, fed protests across Iran in early January, Rouhani praised them for fostering economic growth and boosting the employment rate, “although there are shortcomings”. He then criticized those that had failed to deliver on promises to customers, but maintained that the Government “have solved these institutions’ problems”.
Challenge to Hardliners Over International Regulations
Rouhani specifically challenged his critics by calling on Iranian banks to comply with international regulations, thus coming off a blacklist of transactions.
Hardliners have resisted accession to the Financial Action Task Force and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Parliament finally ratified joining the UNTOC, signed by Iranian officials in 2000, in late January 2018, but talks are continuing with the FATF, which places Iran beside North Korea at the top of its list of countries with the highest economic and financial risks.
Rouhani called on banks to be “modern” and “Islamic”: “Abiding by these regulations, you can distance yourself from the blacklist.”
The foundation of the Rouhani Government has been its promise of recovery after the July 2015 nuclear agreement with the 5+1 Powers; however, it has struggled amid internal divisions and continued and expanding US sanctions. Foreign companies, especially from Europe, have been wary of concluding large trade and investment deals. Rouhani has struggled in easing the grip of the Revolutionary Guards on much of the economy.
The protests of early January were followed by concerns over the Iranian rial, whose historic low reached almost 50,000:1 vs. the US dollar. Intervention by the Government and banks has settled the rate, for now, at less than 45,000:1.
