Mohammad Nahavandian on the State of Iran’s Economy

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Why do you think it’s the moment for Iran to start, you know, potentially relaxing this stay at home orders and start to open up businesses and work?

MOHAMMAD NAHAVANDIAN, IRANIAN VP FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: Thank you, Christiane. Actually, this is the third stage of the social distancing policy in Iran. As you know, Nowruz is a time for Iranians to travel around the country. When the government started informing people and asking them not to travel, it was hard for Iranians to just do that. But the status showed us that more than 70 percent of people voluntarily decided not to travel. Because of that, the second had the mandate from people to make it stricter and have some controls on the cities for people not to travel outside their state. And now, if you look at the statistics from the health ministry, today and yesterday, we can see a declining trend in many provinces in the country. So, the third stage is called smart social distancing. So, gradually, some necessary businesses and offices are opening up but remaining at home is still the slogan. One third of the people will stay at home, people from the government offices and unnecessary businesses still will be closed.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you how the sanctions have affected Iran? Because there are very punishing sanctions by the United States and the rest of the world abides by the U.S. sanctions, they don’t want to cross the United States. So, are you having difficulty getting medical and humanitarian supplies?

NAHAVANDIAN: Actually, that is the case in Iran. In fight against coronavirus the difficulty is double because of the transaction cost. Despite the rhetoric that food and medicine is not subject to sanctions, but as you know, trade has two ways.