SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani dismissed central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, as he is running in the presidential election in June, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
Rouhani “told me that if you stand in the election, you cannot remain the central bank chief because it affects monetary and exchange rate policies,” Tasnim cited Hammati as saying.
“I told him that I had no problem with his decision,” he added.
The hardline-led Guardian Council approved seven candidates out of 40 who met its basic criteria – in turn a small fraction of the 600 who had registered.
They included former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, a conservative; former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei, a frequent presidential candidate; and the current central bank governor, a low-profile moderate.
The council barred former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a moderate conservative, and pragmatist First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, an ally of outgoing president Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani and his moderate allies have blamed most of Iran’s economic woes on U.S. sanctions and given top priority to talks aimed at reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which former U.S. president Donald Trump quit.
But conservative and hardline allies of Khamenei have placed the responsibility squarely on the government, and insisted that Washington cannot be trusted to fulfil any accord.
The new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden aims to revive an agreement abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump, under which Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions. After Trump quit the pact and reimposed sanctions, Iran took steps that violate the deal’s nuclear limits.
So far, Iran and the Biden administration are at loggerheads over which side should move first to revive the agreement, with Tehran demanding Washington first lift sanctions and Washington calling on Tehran first to resume compliance with the deal.
