Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities are adamant that their country’s domestic capacities will be able to keep the country’s economy afloat, despite new economic sanctions targeting Iran unveiled by the United States this week. The US aims to use the sanctions to force Iran into submission in the six month-long war between the two countries. But Iran’s government says it is prepared, with Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh referring to a two-year plan on state television on Monday night.
He added that Tehran could potentially “go on the offensive” in a world where the US was no longer the only dominant force, and was confidant that many countries would effectively reject US President Donald Trump’s threats to cut off all links with Iran. Stockpiling essential goods, foreign currencies and gold has become a main tactic for Tehran. The government has also been forced to resort to rationing energy in one of the most resource-rich countries in the world.
Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati told senior business representatives during a meeting earlier this week that oil exports, Iran’s main foreign currency income source, have almost totally stopped. But Hemmati reassured the business leaders there was no shortage of foreign currency for essential goods as the central bank had cash stockpiles “in places [the US] cannot access”. Hemmati acknowledged “serious issues” like runaway inflation and constantly declining purchasing power for the people, but said, “enduring hardship is very different from collapse and what the US is after”.
Iranians must not expect conditions to get any better over the next year, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani told state-linked media on Tuesday. She also said Iran’s Supreme National Security Council would have to grant authorisation for the government to reveal data on poverty levels in the country. Iran’s national currency fell to a new all-time low of 2.05 million rials against the US dollar on the open market on Tuesday, before slightly recovering on Wednesday.
Despite the turmoil, Iran’s newly-appointed security chief Mohsen Rezaei urged younger Iranians during a state TV interview earlier this week to “enter the economy” and begin manufacturing goods needed by their households and communities at home. That mentality has permeated the Islamic Republic’s strategic thinking for decades, with national development plans repeatedly emphasising “self-sufficiency” and setting targets to achieve it at great cost. To reduce its reliance on food imports for a population of around 90 million, the government claims that Iran can produce 85 percent of its agricultural products domestically, even as concerns remain over what the increase in domestic agricultural production means for Iran’s dire water scarcity problems.
Agriculture Minister Gholam-Reza Nouri said on state television on Tuesday that Tehran aimed to increase domestic food self-sufficiency to 90 percent in the short-term, ahead of ultimately producing all of the country’s essential food domestically. Nouri said that Iran imports about $16bn and exports $8bn in agricultural products – although exports of some products were suspended in March shortly after the start of the war. Iran relies on imports for essential foods and feed commodities, including wheat, maize, rice and vegetable oils.
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