Posts tagged : "Economics"

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Iran nuke deal near collapse; next: bankrupt economy

Iran nuke deal near collapse; next: bankrupt economy

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Nationwide protests over the Iranian government’s decision to cut subsidies on food and basic staples and the ensuing hyperinflation have diminished, but a kerfuffle involving the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has heightened tensions globally, driving the US dollar to historic highs in the Tehran market, and rendering the prospects of the revival of the nuclear deal dimmer than ever. The UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on June 8 rebuking Iran for its limited cooperation with the IAEA and the traces of uranium at three nuclear sites about which it has provided insufficient explanations to the world body. Of the IAEA member...

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The politics of a moratorium: Iran bans South Korean home appliances

The politics of a moratorium: Iran bans South Korean home appliances

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: While Iran finds itself throttled by US economic and banking sanctions that are still a far cry from being repealed, a new layer of complexity has been added to the country’s economic misfortunes – the government has put a wholesale ban on imports of home appliances from South Korea, and is gearing up to apply bans on other foreign products. On September 29, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instructed President Ebrahim Raisi to ban the importation of home appliances, specifically from “two South Korean firms” which he didn’t name, reportedly to stave off the insolvency of domestic manufacturers. He noted in his brief memo that the domestic firms had only just begun to stand on their...

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Thanks to sanctions, Iran loses foreign investors

Thanks to sanctions, Iran loses foreign investors

Asia Times - Kourosh Ziabari: As the Raisi administration continues to refuse to chart a clear path for the resumption of the stalled nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna, and the removal of the daunting sanctions on Iran remain improbable, things are getting worse for the average Iranian. The naked truth about the oil-rich country is the unchecked entrenchment of poverty has been worsened by the government’s soaring budget deficit and the withdrawal of foreign investors who once helped prop up different sectors of the economy. In 2019, and in a bid to incentivize the influx of foreign capital and resources into Iran, the moderate Rouhani administration proposed an initiative whereby international investors lending credit...

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Raisi faces a do or die economic dilemma

Raisi faces a do or die economic dilemma

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Speculation is rife in Iran over who will steer the economy under President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative cleric and judicial head who clinched an easy victory in the June 18 election. The challenges Raisi faces are severe and experts are already casting doubt on his ability to remedy the economy given his limited statecraft experience and the ambiguity surrounding his plans for post-Covid economic recovery, taming hyperinflation and incentivizing investment. By any measure, Iran is in the throes of a cataclysmic economic recession, aggravated by the global pandemic and the economic sanctions that have crushed the livelihoods of ordinary citizens and businesses since former US president...

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Iran wrestling with FATF legislation

Iran wrestling with FATF legislation

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: More than a year after the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisted Iran as a “high-risk jurisdiction” subject to a call for action, debate on the ratification of FATF-related bills has been rekindled in Tehran. Reformists are blaming conservatives for stonewalling the normalization of the country’s banking and trade relations with the outside world – an issue that will indirectly factor in the June 18 presidential election where a conservative candidate will almost certainly win. Headquartered in Paris, FATF is an intergovernmental body set up by the G7 in 1989 to draw up binding regulations to combat money laundering. In...

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Is China Iran’s last resort for survival?

Is China Iran’s last resort for survival?

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran was overtaken with merriment and relief when the long-awaited nuclear deal was inked in July 2015 by the Islamic Republic and six world powers, spelling a happy ending to a diplomatic impasse that had been an unnerving fixture of media headlines and an unvarying talking point of world leaders for nearly two decades. Iran was extricated from the bludgeoning sanctions that had maimed its economy and turned it into a hermit kingdom, and the international community obtained robust assurances that Tehran’s nuclear program would not deviate toward weaponization. A genuine diplomatic breakthrough was clinched, and then-US president Barack Obama lauded it as “the strongest non-proliferation agreement...

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No short-term remedy to Iran’s economic challenges: Cyrus Bina

No short-term remedy to Iran’s economic challenges: Cyrus Bina

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s economy has never been more vulnerable and fragile. Last month, President Hassan Rouhani complained that the United States has been waging an “economic warfare” against Iran by slapping sanctions on the country’s energy, finance, banking, industrial and shipping sectors. In a bid to isolate Iran further, amputate the remaining ties between its financial institutions and the global banking system and prohibit the access of the government in Tehran to much-needed hard currency, the United States on Thursday introduced a new set of sweeping sanctions targeting 18 Iranian banks that were not previously targeted with punitive measures. Cyrus Bina is a distinguished research professor of...

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Did Iran’s fuel shipment to Venezuela really matter?

Did Iran’s fuel shipment to Venezuela really matter?

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Reports about the delivery of 1.5 million barrels of gasoline to Venezuela by Iran in early June once again threw the saga of relations between those two countries into relief. Media, commentators and scholars have been heatedly debating the enigmatic Iran-Venezuela partnership ever since, and how this alliance can challenge the global dominance of the United States, which has long punished both countries with merciless sanctions. Geographically, there is little that Iran and Venezuela share. They are nearly 12,400 kilometers away from each other. Culturally, contemporary Iran subscribes to a conservative religious tradition, which manifests itself in different aspects of daily life, while Venezuela...

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Malawi Can Be Aid Independent If Communities Are Empowered: Joyce Banda

Malawi Can Be Aid Independent If Communities Are Empowered: Joyce Banda

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Malawi is one of the most impoverished nations on the planet. It is experiencing what officials describe as a “population explosion” in a society with inadequate resources. As of 2018, Malawi is the third poorest country in the world with a GDP per capita of only $342, according to the International Monetary Fund. Over 90,000 people in the landlocked African country live with HIV/AIDS, which accounts for one in 10 adults. HIV/AIDS is one of the main reasons why Malawian children become vulnerable or orphaned. The country is in dire need of advanced medical services and facilities and trained physicians, and there is only one doctor for every 50,000 individuals. Climate change and global...

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How Will Sanctions on Iran Affect India? An Interview with Sumitha Kutty

How Will Sanctions on Iran Affect India? An Interview with Sumitha Kutty

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Iran and India have traditionally maintained cordial relations, counting on each other as major security partners. Bonds between the two Non-Aligned Movement heavyweights have strengthened ever since the 1990s when they supported the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan against the Taliban regime. In 2003, they announced the establishment of a “strategic partnership” and have subsequently cooperated on energy, trade, counterterrorism, defense and intelligence operations. It was after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — aka the Iran nuclear deal — that Tehran multiplied its oil exports to the Indian subcontinent and became New Delhi’s second biggest oil supplier. According to...

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Will Greece Recover from Its Debt Crisis? Interview with John Milios

Will Greece Recover from Its Debt Crisis? Interview with John Milios

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Over the past decade, Greece has had a difficult time with a staggering debt crisis and financial stagnation. It began in 2010 just a few years after the global financial crisis and was so severe that Greece could have left the eurozone, the region that uses the euro as a common currency. Some analysts claimed that if Greece had ditched the euro, the financial shocks worldwide would have been more striking than when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, which was the largest bankruptcy in US history. Greek officials underestimated the depth of the debt crisis and the ensuing recession, and they had to ask for international assistance from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Greece...

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In Iran under sanctions, a solstice without pomegranates

In Iran under sanctions, a solstice without pomegranates

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: On Friday, Iranian families will mark the winter solstice, the longest, darkest night of the year. Yalda festivities are usually a time to recite poems and feast on cured meats and fresh fruit, especially the pomegranate. But this year sanctions have kept the precious fruit on vendors’ shelves – its price is out of reach for many grappling with the flailing economy. In the northern Iranian city of Rasht, fruit vendor Farshid says families are unable to afford a decent quality of life or to spend money on recreation, manifested in their reluctance to buy fruit for the solstice. “Yalda night is a time of the year we sell more, but this time, it seems that there’s no trace of increased sales. The...

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