Iran Press/Iran:In an exclusive interview with Iran Press, Seyyed Hussein Naghavi Husseini, member of Iranian parliament said that while the French announced that we would adhere to our commitments, Total and Peugeot left Iran.
Here is his interview:
Q: Considering the announcement by the European Union of a plan to create a new fund with Iran, and a new money transfer channel, can large companies like Total and Airbus trade with Iran?
Naghavi Husseini:
The European effort to establish financial and monetary relations with Iran is significant. But there are different questions in this regard.
The first question is that if this fund and this money exchange route were created, then how many companies will do business with Iran through this fund and how strong will their financial and business relationship with Iran be? Because the Europeans say our companies are private and we cannot force them to do business. So if you create a route, a channel, but companies do not use this route and do not engage in business with Iran, it will be of no benefit or use to Iran.
The second question is that how far Europe can resist against US sanctions. Because we have not seen any action from the Europeans so far.
It is noteworthy that Europeans say they want to maintain the nuclear deal and want to comply with their commitments. But these statements must amount to something practical and tangible from Iran's point of view.
While the French announced that we would adhere to our commitments, Total and Peugeot left Iran. This shows that there are serious doubts about the use of this new financial channel by European companies and whether this European mechanism will succeed.
Q: Does the European Union's announcement affect the downward trend of the foreign currency prices in recent years?
Naghavi Husseini: All experts from the beginning believed that this exchange rate was not real. And it's growing like a bubble, and everyone was waiting for the bubble to burst.
But events like the announcement of Europeans about the creation of a new fund for exchange of funds with Iran, as well as the likelihood of ratification of FATF in parliament, are factors contributing to bursting the bubble. And surely the currency will return to its balanced price. The 35000 Rial is certainly not a decent price for the dollar, but will soon be close to its real price.
Q: People believe that part of the current economic problems are related to external pressures, and partly related to internal management. What do you think ?
Naghavi Husseini: The origin of the problems, is in fact, internal. External pressures have always been on Iran. In the past, it was much harder. In the past, we had crippling sanctions, but these things did not happen in the community.
We believe that the origin of the problems is internal. For example, about foreign currencies, there are two questions. Producer, recipient, and consumer of currency, is government. There is no other consumer of currency, and so the government is responsible for this problem. Therefore, the government must be accountable.
The second question is; What percentage of foreign exchange is traded in the market? The answer is less than 5 percent. So how can this 5% determine the price for the other 95% of foreign exchange which is not traded in the market ? So the fact is that the origin of currency problems is internal.
