US Sanctions Cost Iran’s Economy US$150 Billion, Rohani Says

Iran lost US$150 billion of revenue since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on its economy, President Hassan Rohani said. The US measures are also hampering imports of medical and food supplies, Rohani said in a statement Saturday on state television. Iran’s economy has shrunk over the past two years, inflation and unemployment are rising. Crude exports that the nation depends on for most of its foreign exchange are less than 10% of their level before the US withdrew from the multilateral agreement in May 2018. “If people want to curse anyone for problems and shortcomings in the country, it’s the White House,” Rohani said.

Relations between the US and Iran have been at their worst since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and over the past two years defined by a security crisis triggered by Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear accord and culminating in the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and began re-imposing sanctions that had been eased under the accord. Iran, in turn, has gradually breached the central limits in that deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including on the size of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium as well as the level of purity to which it was allowed to enrich uranium. Washington imposed new sanctions on Monday on Iran’s defense ministry and others involved in its nuclear and weapons program. - Reuters, Bloomberg