WarSclerotic

LONDON – President Hassan Rouhani promised Iranians the government would be able to handle the economic pressure of new US sanctions, a day after traders massed outside parliament to protest against a sharp fall in the value of the national currency.

Washington is to start reimposing economic penalties on Tehran in coming months after US President Donald Trump quit an agreement between major world powers and Iran in which sanctions were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

This may cut Iran’s hard currency earnings from oil exports, and the prospect is triggering a panicked flight of Iranians’ savings from the rial into dollars.

On Monday, police patrolled Tehran’s Grand Bazaar as security forces struggled to restore normality after clashes with protesters angered by the rial’s collapse, which is disrupting business by driving up the cost of imports.

Defending his economic record, Rouhani said the government’s income had not been affected in recent months, and the fall in the rial was the result of “foreign media propaganda.”

“Even in the worst case, I promise that the basic needs of Iranians will be provided. We have enough sugar, wheat, and cooking oil. We have enough foreign currency to inject into the market,” Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

The International Monetary Fund estimated in March that the government held $112 billion of foreign assets and reserves, and that Iran was running a current account surplus. These figures suggested Iran might withstand the sanctions without an external payments crisis.

Iran’s judiciary chief warned on Tuesday that the “economic saboteurs,” who he said were behind the fall of rial, would face severe punishment, including execution or 20 years in jail.

“The enemy is now trying to disrupt our economy through a psychological operation. In recent days some tried to shut down the Bazaar, but their plot was thwarted by the police,” Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

The Iranian government is implementing new plans to control rising prices, including banning imports of over 1,300 products, preparing its economy to resist threatened US sanctions.

Rouhani said the fresh US sanctions were part of a “psychological, economic and political war,” adding that Washington would pay a high price for its actions.

“Withdrawal was the worst decision he (Trump) could make. It was appalling. It hurt America’s global reputation,” he said.

In late December, demonstrations which began over economic hardship spread to more than 80 Iranian cities and towns. At least 25 people died in the ensuing unrest, the biggest expression of public discontent in almost a decade.

Demonstrators initially vented their anger over high prices and alleged corruption, but the protests took on a rare political dimension, with a growing number of people calling on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is warning Ramallah to end its policy of compensating the families of Palestinians convicted of murder and terrorism in Israel, as it reviews whether to cut foreign aid to the organization.

US officials tell The Jerusalem Post that “nothing has changed” since the president signed into law the Taylor Force Act, a bill that requires the administration to freeze aid to the PA unless it halts the decades-old program.

Months earlier, Trump had called for a broad review of all US foreign aid, including of aid to the Palestinians. But one National Security Council spokesman said on Monday that the new law would tie their hands and require action from Palestinian leadership if they wanted aid to continue unaffected.

“At President Trump’s direction, assistance to the Palestinians remains under review,” the White House official said. “While the Taylor Force Act restricts aid to the Palestinian Authority, with very limited exceptions, the Palestinian Authority has the ability to ease those restrictions by ending the abhorrent policy of inciting violence against Americans and Israelis through payments to terrorists and their families.”

Palestinian officials say the compensation scheme amounts to a welfare program for the families of legitimate combatants in their struggle against Israel. Israel and the Trump administration consider it an immoral practice that incentivizes terrorism against civilians.

An i24News report this weekend claimed that aid had already been frozen pursuant to the Taylor Force Act, which passed in March. A State Department official denied the accuracy of the report.

The Taylor Force law exempts aid for security cooperation and humanitarian assistance, and includes a buffer period for the Palestinians to phase out the program.

A congressional source told the Post that the administration was due to certify the PA’s compliance to the aid terms 30 days after the passage of its omnibus spending bill, which took place in late March.

Syrian state TV said late Monday night that two Israeli missiles struck near Damascus international airport, without giving further details.

The pro-Syrian regime online newspaper Al-Masdar News (AMN) cited reports stating that missiles targeted an Iranian cargo plane being unloaded at the airport. According to the reports, regime forces’ air defense systems subsequently intercepted an Israeli drone in south-western Syrian airspace.

The head of the British-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, told AFP that “Israeli missiles hit arms depots for Hezbollah near the airport,” adding that Syrian air defense systems failed to prevent the alleged Israeli strikes.

Israel has regularly refused to confirm or deny mounting overnight raids in Syria, but has repeatedly stated that it is unwilling to accept Iranian military presence in Syria.

In May, however, Israel said it struck 50 Iranian targets in Syria after 20 rockets were fired towards Israel’s front defensive line in the Golan Heights by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds Force.

The targets all belonged to the Quds Force and included intelligence sites, logistics headquarters, a military compound and logistics complex in Kiswah near Damascus; weapons-storage sites at Damascus International Airport; and intelligence systems and installations, as well as observation, military posts and military hardware in the buffer zone.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 11 Iranians were among the 46 killed in Israel’s strikes.

In April, Syria, Iran and Russia all said Israel was responsible for carrying out an attack at the T-4 air base near Homs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 14 people were killed in the strike, with Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency saying that four Iranian soldiers were among the casualties.

The Israeli military last February accused Iranian-backed militias of operating at the base, from where it said an Iranian drone that was shot down over northern Israel had been launched.