Khamenei on Coin and Currency Issues: Violators Should Be Dealt With at Any Level

On Sunday, July 14, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic met with members of the government from the executive and judicial branches, urging them to "deal with violators at any level" regarding the coin and currency issues. According to the official website of Ayatollah Khamenei, most of his remarks on that day focused on economic issues and efforts to resolve the financial and economic problems of the country. During the meeting with government members, including President Hassan Rouhani, Khamenei emphasized the "necessity of decisive action against violators" and praised Rouhani's directive to address "violations in car imports." On Saturday, July 13, President Rouhani had pointed to the potential occurrence of "coordinated corruption" in the import and sale of foreign cars, asking the head of the judiciary to prioritize this case. Following instability in Iran's currency market, the government allocated state currency at a rate of 42,000 tomans to several companies for imports. Reports of "violations" by some companies receiving this currency emerged, and the Iranian Ministry of Communications published a list of recipients who had received 220 million euros in state currency but had only imported 75 million euros worth of phones. In late June, the head of the country's General Inspection Organization reported that a car ordering website had been hacked and "about five thousand high-end and expensive cars were illegally imported into the country." These reports came amid ongoing protests in several Iranian cities since last December, where citizens expressed dissatisfaction with their economic and living conditions, blaming the government as the primary culprit. Khamenei met with Rouhani's government against the backdrop of these reports and urged all agencies to coordinate with the "government's economic team." He also requested that all "propaganda agencies" in the country, including state television, accurately convey the government's economic actions, although he added that "expressing logical criticisms is not a problem." The state television, overseen by the Supreme Leader, has always been one of the biggest critics of the government, to the extent that government officials have accused it of deliberately favoring a specific faction. The official website of the Supreme Leader's office reported that he provided "examples" of "violations" by some agencies regarding coins and currency, but no details of these examples were included in the report. Less than ten days ago, it was reported that Ayatollah Khamenei had instructed Hassan Rouhani to provide him with a "detailed report" on the ambiguities surrounding the state currencies and coins allocated to companies and individuals in recent months. He expressed concern over the "ambiguities regarding the allocation of currency and coins in recent months and the uncertainties created in public opinion." Khamenei also briefly referred to the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA, advising the government that "the country's economy should not be tied to this issue and delayed because of it." He stated, "Of course, the European parties are obliged to provide necessary guarantees regarding the JCPOA, but the country's economy should not be tied to this issue and delayed because of it." In early June, the Supreme Leader severely criticized the new U.S. policies against Iran and the withdrawal from the JCPOA, setting seven conditions for Europe to remain in the agreement and threatening that if these conditions were not met, Iran would resume its nuclear activities. In this context, Hassan Rouhani also stated during the same session on Sunday, "Some issues such as problems in the banking system and liquidity are not related to sanctions and external pressures and have existed in the past."