Iran: Central bank governor Ali Salehabadi sacked after record low currency

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A man counts his banknotes in Iran

Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP

The head of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has been sacked after the national currency hit record lows.

According to the IRNA news agency, Ali Salehabadi is to be replaced by 57-year-old economist Mohammed-Resa Farsin.

That was decided at the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Because of the acute currency crisis, the CBI Vice was dismissed in mid-December.

Observers had expected Salehabadi to be dismissed earlier.

Since the beginning of December, the national currency, the rial, has hit a new record low almost every day.

In the exchange offices on Thursday, the euro exchange rate reached almost 460,000 rials, the dollar exchange rate rose to more than 430,000 rials.

That's a more than 25 percent increase in just three months, according to forex brokers.

According to financial experts, the faltering nuclear negotiations are a major reason for the devaluation of the rial.

According to observers in Tehran, the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West are at an impasse.

Without an agreement in the nuclear dispute, the international economic sanctions against Tehran will not be lifted.

This means, among other things, that Iran can only carry out its oil and gas exports, the country's main source of income, to a very limited extent.

In addition, there are the bank sanctions, because of which Tehran has no access to its foreign accounts.

The Federal Ministry of Economics also suspended foreign trade funding instruments and German-Iranian business formats last week.

The reason for this is also the brutal suppression of the system-critical protests, which was condemned in the West in the strongest terms and has also led to new sanctions against the Islamic country.

»However, we have no mercy on the unreasonable«

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has meanwhile confirmed the intransigent course in dealing with opponents of the Islamic system of rule.

"Our arms are open to those who have been blinded by foreign propaganda, but we have no mercy on the unapologetic," Raisi said at a religious ceremony at Tehran University this week.

Raisi did not elaborate on his threat.

However, more than 20 demonstrators are on a death list from the judiciary.

They are accused of »waging war against God«, which, according to Islamic legal opinion, carries a death sentence.

Two demonstrators have already been executed in connection with this.

For more than three months, people across Iran have been protesting against the Islamic system.

Although fewer people have taken to the streets in recent weeks, the protests have continued in a different form.

More and more women are ignoring the obligatory headscarf and are no longer afraid of the notorious moral police.

In protest, the turbans of clerics are repeatedly knocked off their heads.

Videos showing such scenes have been widely shared on the internet.

In order to prevent forms of protest in social media, the government continues to restrict the internet massively and on some days it shuts it down completely.

Tehran sees "enemies of Iran" and their domestic allies behind the protests and accuses them of wanting to force a political change of power.

The Iranian leadership sees the United States and Israel as enemies, but also Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France and Germany.

According to Iranian activists and human rights groups abroad, there have been more than 500 deaths in connection with the protests.

Mainly demonstrators were killed, but also police and security forces.

dop/dpa