Iranian Parliament Discusses a Record Drop in Local Currency

An Iranian man looks at the exchange store in Tehran (EPA)
An Iranian man looks at the exchange store in Tehran (EPA)
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Iranian Parliament Discusses a Record Drop in Local Currency

An Iranian man looks at the exchange store in Tehran (EPA)
An Iranian man looks at the exchange store in Tehran (EPA)

The Iranian parliament held a closed session on the record decline of the Iranian riyal against foreign currencies as the dollar continues its record-breaking high.

The parliament held an extraordinary session with Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi, and Central Bank Governor Mohammadreza Farzin.

A spokesman for the parliament's presidency, Nizamuddin Mousavi, told reporters that the three officials' questioning came following the rise in the exchange rate and essential commodities.

He indicated that senior government economic officials explained the developments in the exchange market, adding that the lawmakers stressed the need to find solutions to the living conditions.

Mousavi noted that government officials recognized that the exchange rate fluctuations could harm the country's economy, noting that officials are proposing contradicting policies.

A member of the parliament's presidency, Alireza Salimi, told the Fars news agency that the Economy Minister informed lawmakers that the security forces arrested many currency manipulators whose aim was to disrupt the currency market.

Farzin told lawmakers that only the rates announced by the bank's new portal were "real."

According to Fars, lawmakers criticized the currency situation and called on the government to take serious measures to control fluctuations.

It quoted the deputies as saying that the governor has the necessary powers to facilitate measures, noting that if the government faced restrictions and legal obstacles, the parliament was ready to pass laws to help.

The parliamentarians said they were ready to cooperate with the government to improve the situation.

MP Mohammadreza Taj al-Dini reported that the Central Bank governor said the foreign currency rate is unrealistic, calling for a unified system for gold and currencies.

The government and the parliament agreed to hold joint sessions on the gold and currency market and the economic situation in the country, said Taj al-Dini, adding that the government can benefit from the parliament's advice to stabilize the economy.

The Minister of Economy briefed the parliamentarians on the currency market imbalances, adding that the security, intelligence, and judicial institutions would deal with currency manipulators.

Meanwhile, the local currency fell below the level of 500,000 riyals per the US dollar last Monday, as market participants saw no end to the sanctions.

On Saturday, the riyal plummeted to a new record low at 567,000 against the dollar, compared to the 539,200 recorded on Friday, according to Bonbast.com, which gathers live data from Iranian exchanges.

The US Commerce Department targeted Belarus, Iran, and others in its latest response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, imposing export controls and adding more targets to its target list.

Economists said the deadlock in nuclear negotiations, the exacerbation of Western-Iranian tensions, especially after the Ukrainian war, the suppression of recent protests, and the government's failure to improve the economic situation were among the reasons for the rise in the exchange rate.

Facing an inflation rate of about 50%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, or gold, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.

Over the last six months, Iran's currency has slumped nearly 60% in value, according to Bonbast.com.

Iranian websites quoted Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf as saying that the parliament and government need to coordinate to regulate the currency market.

In response, Central Bank Governor Abdul Nasser Hemmati implicitly criticized Ghalibaf's statements, wondering why it has taken so long to solve the issue if the parliament and the government agreed to regulate and stabilize the market in an hour-long meeting.

Hemmati, who lost the previous presidential elections, wondered if the economic team realized the impact of the high exchange rate on people's livelihoods.



Fighting Rages in Congo's Goma while Embassies Attacked in Capital

Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo January 28, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Nyem
Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo January 28, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Nyem
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Fighting Rages in Congo's Goma while Embassies Attacked in Capital

Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo January 28, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Nyem
Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo January 28, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Nyem

Dead bodies lay in the streets, gunfire rang out and hospitals were overwhelmed in east Congo's largest city on Tuesday, as M23 rebels backed by Rwanda faced pockets of resistance from army and pro-government militias.

A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital attacked a UN compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the United States, expressing anger at what they said was foreign interference.

M23 fighters entered Goma on Monday in the worst escalation since 2012 of a three-decade conflict rooted in the long fallout from the Rwandan genocide and control of Congo's abundant mineral resources.

The Congolese government and the head of UN peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops were present in Goma, backing up their M23 allies. Rwanda has said it was adopting a defensive posture because of the threat posed to it by Congolese militias, Reuters reported.

Dozens of Democratic Republic of Congo troops had surrendered, but some soldiers and pro-government militiamen were holding out, residents and UN sources said.

People in several neighbourhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions on Tuesday morning.

"I have heard the crackle of gunfire from midnight until now ... it is coming from near the airport," an elderly woman in Goma's northern Majengo neighbourhood, close to the airport, told Reuters by phone.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told a briefing in Geneva colleagues had reported "heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets."

"We have reports of rapes committed by fighters, looting of property ... and humanitarian health facilities being hit," he added. Other international aid officials described hospitals overwhelmed with wounded being treated in hallways.

"The town is a powderkeg," Willy Ngumbi, a bishop in Goma, said. Explosives had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday, he said by phone. "The youth are armed and the fighting is now taking place in the town."

FEAR OF SPIRAL

The UN and global powers fear the conflict could spiral into a regional war akin to those of 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, has suggested the rebels' aim is to replace President Felix Tshisekedi and his government in the capital 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away.

In Kinshasa, angry crowds burned tyres, chanted anti-Rwanda slogans and attacked diplomatic installations of several countries seen as favourable to Rwanda, leading the police to fire tear gas.

A European diplomatic source said the Rwandan, French, US, Ugandan and Kenyan embassies had been targeted.

"What Rwanda is doing is with the complicity of France, the US and Belgium. The Congolese people are fed up. How many times to we have to die?" said protester Joseph Ngoy.

The United Nations has been caught up in the fighting with a peacekeeping force. South Africa said three of its peacekeepers were killed in a crossfire between government troops and rebels and a fourth had succumbed to wounds from earlier fighting, bringing the number of its fatalities in the past week to 13.

It said President Cyril Ramaphosa had spoken by phone to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and the two had agreed on the need for a ceasefire.

On Monday, Rwanda's army reported five people killed and 26 injured in exchanges of fire with Congolese troops near the border.

The fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of Goma, a regional hub for humanitarian aid for displaced people. Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting since the start of the year, on top of 3 million displaced in eastern Congo last year.

FAST OFFENSIVE

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgencies that have brought tumult to Congo since the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda thirty years ago, when Hutu extremists killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and then were toppled by the Tutsi-led forces that still dominate Rwanda.

M23 fighters took up arms again in 2022, a decade after a previous insurgency that briefly captured Goma.

In recent weeks they made swift gains through North Kivu province on the border with Rwanda, ignoring calls from world leaders to halt their offensive.

Rwanda has dismissed calls for troops to leave, saying its security is threatened by ethnic Hutu militias, some with links to the extremists who murdered close to 1 million people during the 1994 genocide. UN experts say Kigali has deployed 3,000-4,000 troops in eastern Congo to support the M23.

Congo's government has called on international powers to pressure Rwanda, potentially via sanctions, to end the M23 offensive.

In a phone call with Congo president Tshisekedi on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio "condemned the assault on Goma by the Rwanda-backed M23 and affirmed the United States’ respect for the sovereignty of the DRC," the State Department said.

The UN Security Council was due to discuss the crisis again on Tuesday, diplomats said.