Iran takes action after Trump’s Muslim ban
Greg Jubert
On Mar. 21, at the start of the fiscal year, the Iranian government went through with a new policy and decided to stop using the US dollar in its official statements. The decision, which will affect all exchange reports both financial and foreign, was announced at the end of January by Central Bank of Iran governor Valiollah Seif. This controversial decision comes primarily as a result of President Trump’s ban on Iranians and six other other Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States.
Iran has also made some other decisions as they have continued to express their displeasure with President Trump’s policy. The country will also stop giving visas to US citizens, which left a US freestyle wrestling team with uncertainty as they were to compete in Iran in the Wrestling World Cup last February. Iran eventually decided to allow the team to claim visas so they could be a part of the competition.
Due to years of economic sanctions, Iran and the United States currently do very little trade with one another. Perhaps the most significant challenge as a result of this action for Iran is that oil, the nation’s top export, is represented in US dollars. This may prove to be troublesome as earnings could be jeopardized through this exchanging of currency, as the oil industry currently generated approximately $41 billion in American dollars in the past year. What is certain however, is that tensions between the United States and Iran do not appear to be easing anytime in the near future, and that with or without a currency change can be taken to the bank.
Niagara Wire 