Stating that the United States is using all its power on sanctions against our banking system, oil sales and other economic fields, the President said, “Foreign and petroleum ministries and the central bank (CBI) are at the forefront of fighting the US”.

Addressing the managers of the banking system at the 58^th Annual General Assembly of the Central Bank of Iran on Tuesday, Dr Hassan Rouhani said, “I appreciate Mr Zarif, Zanganeh and Hemmati as people who are under pressures at this front”.
He also described the annual report of the central bank promising, adding, “Despite the hardships and critical conditions, we have had good achievements”.
Stating that the ministries of foreign affairs and petroleum and the central bank are people’s representatives, he said, “The entire government is elected by people and it is people who are making the effort”.
“Based on the facts, we wouldn’t have good trade balance this year because of sanctions, but figures show that despite all these hardships, we have had $40 billion of non-oil exports and $38.5 billion import, which shows 1.5 balance,” said Rouhani.
He said, “Of course, our basic goods’ import has increased a little, but we have also had less imports in other fields”.
The President also referred to banking and legal achievements against the US and added, “Despite the pressures of the US government, we were able to defeat them three times in international courts”.
“We have achieved good victories in political and international stages and we have done great things in the region, parts of which were on the shoulders of the IRGC, the foreign ministry and the economic sectors,” he said.
Referring to the Syrian President Bashar Assad’s visit to Tehran, Dr Rouhani added, “President Assad’s visit to Iran to meet with the Supreme Leader and me for thanking the Iranian people, government and Supreme Leader indicates that if we stand by each other, we will be successful”.
“How can our banks work easily without having relations with other banks around the world?,” said the President.
Stating that selling oil and goods is not possible without having banking and financial relations with the world, he said, “If we cut our ties with FATF, we will have problems with our banking activities in the world”.
“If there is any objections to what I said, or there is anyone who believes that approving or rejecting the two remaining bills out of the four bills has no effects on our banking relations with the world, I invite them to have an interview today and reject it,” said Rouhani.
He also said, “We have to accept that other countries in the world have wisdom and reason. Every country around the world is part of an institution or group; does this mean that they have no wisdom and reason?”.
He also said, “The main responsibility of the central bank is harnessing the inflation and creating better conditions for economic growth”.
The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran also said, “Our economic growth in the last two years has been good and we need to take bigger economic steps for next year”.
“We all need to help the central bank so that the currency rates becomes reasonable, balanced and acceptable,” he continued.