0641 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Both Fars and Press TV prefer not to speak of the "resistance economy" this morning. Instead they push the good-news statement from 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, during a visit by the chairman of the Chinese Congress, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to increase its economic and trade ties with China to $100 billion."
China, the leading importer of Iranian oil, had sharply reduced its purchases this spring before returning to the levels of 2011 in June and July.
0635 GMT: Currency Watch. The leading currency site Mesghal has not updated its Monday report of the Iranian Rial at 25350:1 vs. the US dollar.The Rial fell more than 4% yesterday to an all-time low. At one point, it reached 25650:1.
0615 GMT: Mohsen Rezaei --- former head of the Revolutionary Guards, current Secretary of the Expediency Council, Presidential candidate in 2009 and probably in 2013 --- is the latest high-level official to trumpet the "resistance economy" proclaimed by the Supreme Leader amid US-led sanctions and economic tensions.
In an interview with Najmeh Bozorgmehr of the Financial Times, Rezaei explained, "A new economic system [is] being formulated...to renovate Iran’s economy....This is not going to be an austerity economy nor it will it be an underground economy, but an economy that will be within economic theories to address conditions under sanctions.”
Rezaei was careful to say that the US and Europe were not succeeding in their economic pressure. Instead, the West had given the Islamic Republic an opportunity: “If we had not faced sanctions, we would never have thought of [reducing our dependence on] oil. Sanctions are dragging us in that direction.”
That position, however, led to Rezaei's far more interesting --- if cautious --- criticism of the Ahmadinejad Government. Blaming a bloated bureaucracy as well as dependence on oil revenues for difficulties, Rezaie added that "correct predictions" could have eased the recent problems such as inflation.
At the same time, Rezaei emphasised that there were two Government committees, one under President Ahmadinejad and one under 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, dealing with sanctions.
Posted via email from lissping
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