BFF-64 Iran’s Rouhani calls for unity in face of economic woes

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IRAN-ECONOMY-POLITICS-UNREST

Iran’s Rouhani calls for unity in face of economic woes

TEHRAN, June 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called
on Tuesday for national unity to preserve “confidence” and “hope” in the face
of unrest over the Islamic republic’s mounting economic woes.

Rouhani’s remarks came as vendors in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, a traditional
area of support for Iran’s leadership, continued a rare strike that began
Monday over the collapse of the rial on foreign exchange markets.

“The media, the scholars, the preachers, the (Shiite) seminaries, all those
with a public voice, the parliament, the judicial system… we must all join
hands,” Rouhani said in a long televised address during an annual conference
organised by the judiciary.

“I assure you that if we can safeguard these two assets — hope and trust
(of the people) — we can overcome all problems,” Rouhani said.

“Why should people worry? Today, this anxiety is created by the media of
the enemies. They are doing their job… but we expect more (support) from
our friends,” the president said.

A moderate conservative elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2017 with backing
from reformers, Rouhani has been under attack in recent weeks from Iran’s
ultra-conservative camp — be it editorials in the press or sermons from
imams in cities across the country.

Critics accuse the government of neglecting the most vulnerable segments of
the population from inflation and price hikes, and instead focusing on
reforms they deem non-essential like the admission of women into football
stadiums.

Iran’s currency has plunged almost 50 percent in value in the past six
months, with the US dollar now buying around 85,000 rials on the black
market.

Tehran has faced mounting economic woes since the United States in May
pulled out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers that
lifted international sanctions in exchange for a scaling back of the Islamic
republic’s atomic programme.

Apart from the rial’s collapse, the Iranian private sector has long been
starved of investment, its banking system is crippled by bad loans and record
levels of unemployment mean a third of under 30-year-olds are out of work.

BSS/AFP/RY/1910 hrs