On Saturday, the currency of Iran hit its lowest point against the United States dollar as a result of its expanding seclusion and the European Union’s potential sanctions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or some of its members.
In recent months, relations between the EU and Tehran have gone down the drain, with attempts to commence nuclear negotiations coming to a standstill. Iran has taken into custody some European citizens, and the EU has been vocal in condemning the cruel handling of demonstrators and the imposition of capital punishment.
On Saturday, the dollar was recorded trading at 447,000 rials on Iran’s black market, having increased from 430,500 the day prior, according to the website Bonbast.com.
Since the passing of 22-year-old Kurd Iranian female Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16, the rate of the rial has dropped by nearly a third.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the recent unrest has posed one of the most difficult tests to the country’s theocratic system.
The Ecoiran economic website attributed the ongoing depreciation of the rial to a purported “global understanding” that was against Iran.
Ecoiran noted that the intensifying political pressures, such as the addition of the IRGC to a list of terrorist organizations and the limitation of Iran-connected ships and oil tankers, are a demonstration of a global consensus against Iran, which may have a sway on the dollar’s rate in Tehran.
A Sunni leader has called for revising the Iranian constitution as demonstrators have taken to the streets in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament urged the EU to place the IRGC of Iran on their list of terrorist groups, charging them with repressing protesters and sending drones to Russia. Although the assembly cannot legally force the EU to do so, they wanted to make a strong political statement to Tehran.
The maritime authority of Panama revealed this week that in the past four years, its vessel registry, the largest in the world, has removed the flag from 136 ships connected to Iran‘s state oil company.
On Saturday, Mohammad Reza Farzin, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, attributed the decline of the rial to “psychological operations” that the Iranian government has claimed are being conducted by its adversaries to undermine the Islamic Republic.
According to IRIB, Farzin declared that currently, the central bank is unconstrained in terms of foreign currency and gold resources and reserves, and the primary cause of the movement of the free exchange rate is media fabrication and psychological tactics.
In Iran, where inflation is estimated to be around 50 percent, citizens have been looking to purchase US dollars, other strong currencies, or gold as a way to protect their funds.
