Iran’s currency, the rial, fell to an all-time low on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 due to former US President Donald Trump being on the verge of winning the US presidency for a second term, news agency AP reported.
The rial at the moment, is being traded at an exchange rate of 703,000 rials for one dollar.
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The exchange rate used to be 32,000 for one dollar in 2015, at the time of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers. When Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in as president in May, the currency was down to 584,000 for a dollar.
The further fall in the rial comes amid the Iranian economy’s struggle with crippling international sanctions due to its rapidly advancing nuclear programme, which now enriches uranium at close to weapons-grade levels, according to the report.
Pezeshkian came to power promising to reach a deal to ease Western sanctions. He was elected after a helicopter crash killed his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi in May.
Donald Trump inching closer to winning plays an important role in the currency’s value fall.
In 2018, Trump as the US president unilaterally withdrew US from the accord in 2018, which created years of tensions between the countries that persist to this very day, the report stated.
The Iranian government has however, tried to downplay for weeks, the effect on their country of whoever won the US elections.
Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, “The election of the US president doesn’t have anything specifically to do with us.”
“The major policies of America and the Islamic Republic are fixed, and they won’t heavily change by people replacing others,” the report quoted her as saying. “We have already made necessary preparations in advance.”
Iran is still locked in the Mideast wars with its allies including Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, all of which form the self-described “Axis of Resistance” against Israel.
Tehran also appears to be assessing the damage from Israel’s strikes on October 26 which came as a response to two Iranian ballistic missile attacks.
Iran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel where US troops have a missile defence battery, according to the report.
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