Iran Sets Currency Rescue Ahead of Reimposed U.S. Sanctions
- Judiciary, legislature act after week of sporadic protests
- U.S. to ban bank note purchases, gold and some metal trading
Iran plans to implement a new financial rescue package on Monday to try and halt the rial’s decline, coinciding with the re-imposition of severe U.S. sanctions on the oil-rich state’s economy after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The decision follows a week of sporadic protests against Iran’s political and religious establishment as concerns over the economy mount. On Friday, one person was shot dead and 20 others arrested in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, the semi-official Fars news reported. About 500 protesters in Eshtehard, a town west of the capital Tehran, used stones and bricks to smash the windows of a seminary and tried to set fire to its building, Fars news reported, citing local cleric Hojjatoleslam Hendiani.