Iran may employ cryptocurrencies as part of its efforts to circumvent the upcoming US sanctions, according to a high-ranking Iranian lawmaker who said the matter will be discussed in parliament soon. The Iranian MP also believes that digital money can help with overcoming the hegemony of the US dollar.
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Teheran Mulls Evading US Sanctions with Crypto
Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi
Cryptocurrencies are one of the major mechanisms Iran can use to evade the new US sanctions, a senior Iranian lawmaker said in an interview published recently. Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi, chairman of the parliamentary Economic Commission, also noted that digital currencies could help get rid of the dollar hegemony in international trade. Speaking to the Mizan News Agency, he said the matter will soon be reviewed in the parliament of the Islamic Republic.
Pour-Ebrahimi also noted that one of the main priorities of the Iranian legislature, in the current volatile economic situation, would be to explore the issue of money treaties as another mechanism to evade the sanctions. “Today, many countries like Russia, China and Brazil have already turned to mutual or multi-national money treaties which facilitate trade transactions,” he explained.
Amid rising tensions with the US, since Washington pulled out from the nuclear deal in May and threatened Teheran with harsher measures, Iran’s national fiat currency, the rial, has lost half of its value in the past several months. The new set of economic sanctions is expected to take effect in November this year and Iranian authorities have been looking for ways to circumvent them, the Iran Front Page reports.
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