(5 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO USE BBC PERSIAN, VOA PERSIAN, MANOTO TV, IRAN INTERNATIONAL
1. Traffic around Ferdowsi Square in Tehran
2. Currency exchange shop
3. Exchange rate board showing official figures
4. Setup shot of man checking exchange rates on phone
5. Exchange rates on phone screen
6. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Sajjad Masoumi, 29, Tehran resident:
"It has totally gone unleashed and nobody knows where it (dollar exchange rate) is heading. I think there is no (government) control on it. Everything in our country depends on the dollar (rate). Wherever we go and whatever we want to buy depends on the dollar rate."
7. Rates board
8. Wide of exchange shop
9. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Sajjad Masoumi, 29, Tehran resident:
"I’ve totally lost hope for everything and prefer not to check the rates. I don’t want to hear or read about it anymore.’
10. Bus station
11. Bus leaving
12. Pedestrians
13. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Saeed (no last name given), Tehran resident:
"If we want to live a comfortable life, we should maintain good ties with our neighbors. We shouldn’t bare our teeth at them, they will do the same. Who ends up suffering from the current situation with dollar rate, that directly impacts prices of goods? It’s people like me, a retired person who lives on a fixed income which keeps losing value. When inflation goes up to 40 or 50 percent, the government does me a favor and raises my pension by 20 percent."
14. Foreign currency dealers and customers
15. Exchange shops
16. Traffic on road.
STORYLINE:
Iran ’s rial currency traded Saturday at a record low against the U.S. dollar as the country returned to work after a long holiday, costing over 1 million rials for a single greenback as tensions between Tehran and Washington likely will push it even lower.
The exchange rate had plunged to over 1 million rials during the Persian New Year, Nowruz, as currency shops closed and only informal trading took place on the streets, creating additional pressure on the market.
But as traders resumed work Saturday, the rate fell even further to 1,043,000 to the dollar, signaling the new low appeared here to stay.
On Ferdowsi Street in Iran’s capital, Tehran, the heart of the country’s money exchanges, some traders even switched off their electronic signs showing the going rate as uncertainty loomed over how much further the rial could drop.
“We turn it off since we are not sure about the successive changes of the rate,” said Reza Sharifi, who works at one exchange.
Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, particularly after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for lifting of international sanctions, the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar.
After Trump returned to the White House for his second term in January, he restarted his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran with sanctions.
He again went after firms trading Iranian crude oil, including those selling at a discount in China.
Trump meanwhile, has written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, trying to jumpstart direct talks between Tehran and Washington.
So far, Iran has maintained it is willing for indirect talks, but such discussions under the Biden administration failed to make headway.
The falling rial has put more pressure as well on Iranian reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.
AP Video by Saeed Sarmadi.
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