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Iran parliament to question Ahmadinejad over currency crisis

3 Oct 2012 - 15:51


Following the recent currency and gold crisis in Iran, some members of parliament believe that the government is responsible for the currency crisis and plan to question the president over the issue.

Referring to the Iran's currency market turmoil, Mohammad Bayatian, a member of parliament on an industry and mines commission said "due to the government's ignorance to the parliaments' remarks to organize the currency market, a plan has been prepared to question the president which will soon be presented to the Majlis board," ICANA reported.

Mohammad Bayatian was quoted as saying that enough signatures have been collected to force Ahmadinejad to face questioning before lawmakers over the currency’s nosedive.

The Iranian lawmaker stated that the government has enough tools to control the currency and gold market. "It is doubted that by collecting liquidity from people to cost for the Mehr Housing project and increasing cash subsidies, the government has made the foreign currency price raised," he added.

Moreover, Javad Jahangirzadeh, a member of Iran's parliamentary presiding board, said the president's effort to accuse others, and absolve the government of its responsibilities against the country's economic conditions "is below his dignity and accusing others will not reduce the government and Mr. Ahmadinejad's responsibility to assess the necessary competence for managing the economic affairs."

"Are these (currency) fluctuations because of economic problems? The answer is no,'' Ahmadinejad told reporters in his first public comments in Iran since returning from the U.N. General Assembly. "Is this because of government policies? Never ... It's due to psychological pressures. It's a psychological battle.''

Elsewhere, a Member of Iran's Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Hossein Naghavi Hosseini affirmed that fluctuations in gold and currency market are functions of several variables and if anyone thinks that the changes affected by the sanctions, he/she is certainly wrong.

A day earlier, Ali Larijani the head of the Majlis also said that "80 percent" of economic problems were linked to the mismanagement of the Ahmadinejad's government and the rest to sanctions.

It seems that Larijani intended the government, as the one which is responsible for the economic policy making, to be blamed and absolve institutions making foreign policy decisions, especially in the field of Iran's nuclear file, from the responsibility for the current crisis in foreign currency market.

Since, from the beginning of his presidency, Ahmadinejad was facing criticism from some economists, his political rivals may be intended to deny the connection between the nuclear sanctions and the economic crisis and consider the government as the only responsible institution for the current crisis.

Yet, according to some experts, that the intensification of foreign trade and financial sanctions coincides with the intensification of foreign exchange rate and price inflation indicates some sort of correlation between nuclear and economic crisis.

 

 

 


Story Code: 6697

News Link :
https://www.theiranproject.com/en/news/6697/iran-parliament-to-question-ahmadinejad-over-currency-crisis

The Iran Project
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