The Latest from Iran (23 January): Hibernating While The Currency Falls
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 16:37
1944 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Fars, citing an "informed source", dismisses today's sanctions adopted by the European Union, which included a ban on oil imports starting 1 July and an immediate tightening of restrictions on deals with Iran's Central Bank.
"One of the sanctions announced recently was blocking the Central Bank's assets in the European countries, while the CBI does not have even one single Rial (Iran's currency unit) in Europe," the source said.
Fars, reflecting the regime line that the dollar can be bypassed (see 1325 GMT), insists, "During the last two years, Iran has been replacing dollar with other currencies in its trade with the outside world."
Iranian officials have said that arrangements have been made for trade with Russia in rubles and the Iranian Rials, and Tehran is pursuing exchange with India in yen as well as rupees.