With exit of foreign companies, economy of mullahs’ regime in trouble

Nora Bandari

The Iranian economy is suffering a continuous deterioration due to the US sanctions imposed since 2018, after Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement, and after many countries and companies refused to deal with its market system, fearing the sanctions, which were the Korean companies Samsung and LG. They announced their exit from investment in the country.

The assistant foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, responded on Sunday, February 16, saying that the two companies will not have a priority in the future of the Iranian economy, because the companies that leave in this situation lose a market that they will not be able to obtain again easily.

Araghchi considered that the departure of the two companies is a “dependency to the United States”, stressing that Washington’s pressure has reached its climax, and that there are very difficult conditions facing Tehran.

What Araghchi said was confirmed by the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi in a tweet on February 15, saying that foreign companies leaving Iran will find it difficult to return to them.

This came after the announcement of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iranian Association for Audio and Video Devices, Ali Reza Mousavi Majd on February 14 that the two companies has ended work in the home appliances and mobile phones market, indicating that the reason is the US sanctions.

US sanctions

Simultaneously, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on February 16, 2020 that his country faces unprecedented sanctions, and that the embargo imposed on Tehran has no parallel in the world, expressing his willingness to sit at the negotiating table within the framework of the agreement with European countries when they return Washington to the nuclear agreement and lift the ban on Iran.

In June 2018, CNN reported that a US State Department official said that about a hundred international companies, especially in the energy and finance sectors, intend to leave Iran in response to the economic sanctions imposed by the US administration on Iran and its collaborators.

Among the companies that have already withdrawn from the Iranian market are the French Peugeot, Renault, German automobile maker Daimler, the French oil company Total and Germany’s Siemens Technology, in addition to the companies Honeywell, Dover Dove and General Electric as well as Boeing.

Solve the crisis

The previous information indicates that Tehran is going through a difficult economic stalemate. Therefore, it has only two things, the first of which is sitting and negotiating with the United States without imposing conditions, and the second is that it awaits the next American presidential elections in the hope that a new president can come and set a new framework in the relationship with Iran.