“The new sanctions marked the first time Iran’s currency, the rial, has been targeted directly with sanctions, the White House said. The sanctions apply to foreign financial institutions that purchase or sell significant amounts of the rial, and to those who hold significant amounts of the rial in accounts outside Iran.” The Obama administration’s new sanctions not only targets Iran’s government, it targets the Iranian people. It affects their everyday lives and their basic living essentials that include food and medicine. Targeting Iran’s currency adds pressure to food prices such as chicken, meat and cooking oil that already have increased to more than 60 percent in the last several months. Sanctions imposed in the past include oil and banking embargos that have led to shortages of foreign currencies leading to the decline of the Islamic Republic’s needed income, at the same time contributing to high inflation rates while weakening the buying power of the Iranian people. The Associated Press also reported that the ‘rial’ would not be able to be used outside of Iran for trade or other financial transactions: Senior administration officials said the sanctions were designed to make the rial essentially unusable outside of Iran. The hope is that banks and businesses holding Iranian currency will dump the funds, making the rial weaker. The value of the rial has dropped by half since the start of 2012, the White House said. In a report conducted by Reuters back in April said that “Iran has suffered double-digit inflation for most of the past decade. Inflation began rising sharply at the end of 2010 when the government slashed food and fuel subsidies; since then the sanctions, imposed over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, have pushed down its currency, adding to pressure on prices.” The Obama administration is conducting economic warfare against the Iranian people because the latest sanctions target basic living essentials, especially food. When food prices are out of reach for the average consumer, it creates anger and disappointment among the population that unfortunately reflects the Iranian government’s actions and policies on the economic front right before the presidential elections scheduled on June 14th. The Iranian government is under numerous sanctions which make it difficult to operate in the best interests of the people. The leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his government has planned a strategy to counter economic sanctions with 3 months worth of food supplies. The question is would it be enough until the Iranian government finds a way around the economic sanctions imposed by the West?...'
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 17:29:58 +0000
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