Iran’s parliament sacked the country’s finance minister on Sunday after impeaching him over soaring inflation and a plunging currency, state television reported.
Economy and Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati lost a vote of confidence, with 182 of 273 parliamentarians present backing his removal.
The decision comes amid rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and worsening relations with the West.
Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, especially after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. In 2015, the rial was worth 32,000 to the dollar, but by July, it had plummeted to 584,000. It dropped even further recently, with exchange shops in Tehran trading 930,000 rials for each dollar.
The deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, provided for an easing of sanctions and the return of Western investment to Iran for increased limits on the country’s nuclear activities.
Earlier, President Masoud Pezeshkian defended Hemmati, a former central bank governor, telling lawmakers: “We are in a full-scale [economic] war with the enemy… we must take a war formation.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian (C) visits a defense and space achievements exhibition in Tehran, February 2, 2025. (Iranian Presidency / AFP)
“The economic problems of today’s society are not related to one person and we cannot blame it all on one person.”
Lawmakers took turns angrily censuring Hemmati, blaming him for Iran’s economic woes.
“People cannot tolerate the new wave of inflation; the rise in the price of foreign currency and other goods must be controlled,” said one parliamentarian, Ruhollah Motefakker-Azad.
“People cannot afford to buy medicine and medical equipment,” said another, Fatemeh Mohammadbeigi.
Pezeshkian took office in July with the ambition of reviving the economy and ending some Western-imposed sanctions.
But the depreciation of the rial has only intensified, especially since the fall in December of Iran ally Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
People celebrate at Umayyad Square in Damascus after rebels took over the Syrian capital on December 8, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
The day before his government was toppled in Damascus, the US dollar was trading for around 717,000 rials on Iran’s black market.
“The rate of the foreign exchange is not real; the price is due to inflationary expectations,” Hemmati said in his defense.
“The most important problem of the country’s economy is inflation, and that is chronic inflation, which has plagued our economy for years,” the finance minister added.
US President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in January, has revived his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, further tightening restrictions on the Islamic Republic but at the same time calling for talks.
Nevertheless, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later rejected the idea of negotiations with the US altogether.
“I personally believe in dialogue, and I will continue to do so,” said Pezeshkian during the impeachment session.
“However, we will stand by the position the supreme leader has taken regarding America until the end, and we will not do anything else.”
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