Iran Arrests 16 ‘Main Players’ in Currency Crisis
Iran Arrests 16 ‘Main Players’ in Currency Crisis
Iran arrested 16 people Thursday, accusing them of contributing to the currency crisis plaguing the country that has triggered protests in the streets.
Those arrested “were the main players in the recent fluctuations in the foreign currency market,” the Tehran Judiciary said in a statement.
The move came a day after riot police worked to disperse protests in the capital’s main bazaar and nearby streets. Demonstrators chanted slogans opposing firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and decrying the skyrocketing cost of basic goods.
Some “agitators” and two European tourists who were gathering information about the protests were arrested Wednesday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
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The rial’s plummet to historic lows is the result of international sanctions, imposed largely by the United States and the European Union in an effort to pressure Iran to sit down for talks on its nuclear program.
“Our goal has been and remains to persuade the Iranian regime to negotiate seriously in good faith with the international community over its nuclear program, to fulfill its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency and to the United Nations and to do so expeditiously,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.