EU’s Decisive Action Against Bank Melli of Iran Is A Major Economic Blow to the Regime of Islamic Republic of Iran With Profound Political Aftermaths.

Finally EU decided to put the biggest Iranian bank under its sanctions by blocking all the assets of this bank. Even though in last few months regime had managed to transfer hundreds of million of dollars to inside Iran and some other Arab countries, but this bank still has many other investments and assets in abroad which are frozen now. Bank Melli of Iran has many other investments such as CDs, bonds, certified accounts, and insured assets with other foreign banks which are all blocked with this sanction. More important, after blocking the assets of two other major Iranian banks: Sepah and Saderat, many of the financial transactions of the Iranian exporters and foreign importers had been going through Bank Melli. The bank’s unique position throughout last year made this bank the only major Iranian financial institution that its LCDs were accepted by the European companies.

Today, total financial obligations of this bank in UK, France, and Germany alone can reach over a billion dollars. Obviously under the international banking laws the bank is responsible to meet all its financial obligations on time or it will face major fines and penalties by the European Central Bank. The other major economic fallout of this sanction will be the currency exchange problems facing import/export transactions.

Even though up to now, the president and the other so called fundamentalists always have downplayed the economic sanctions referring to them as bunch of “torn papers”, but this time they see themselves threatened by major pressures. Ahmadinejad who never accepted any criticism towards the failures of his cabinet, and always wanted to separate his administration from the previous cabinets of Hashemi, Khatami, and others, in an interview with Sima, the official TV station in Iran, acknowledged the shortcomings and failures of his cabinet. In that interview, worried about the aftermath of the mounting economic sanctions, he soften his tone towards other factions in the government and by appeasing his opponents goes on saying that he have had hours of consultations with Hashemi Shahroodi, and Larigani about his economic plans. Ahmadinejad went so far in this interview to say that if other experts can present any improvement for his economic plans, he is willing to kiss their hands! This was an obvious deviation from his past rejection-minded approach in dealing with other factions.

With no doubt the impacts of these economic sanctions are going to intensify in upcoming days and this will bring about more socio-political resentments from the masses. These days, workers are on strike in many parts of the country and are facing harsh conditions trying to make ends meet. In the past the policies of the regime in its totality has shown that the regime is not in any way interested changing its adventurous, repressive, and warmongering behavior. As long as the tyrannical regime is ruling the country, people’s social, political, and economic rights will always be repressed and taken away. The way the current events are unfolding, it will provide such a condition that more than ever will culminate in toppling the regime of Islamic Republic.

Organization of Iranian People’s Fedaii Guerillas (OIPFG)
June 24, 2008