TEHRAN - To prevent a freeze of its foreign reserves Iran withdrew its deposits from foreign banks and allocated 13 billion dollars of that reserves to buying gold and now that value of that gold has tripled.

 

Bahmani said the central bank bought gold at a price of $656 per ounce and now the price of each ounce of gold has jumped to 1870 dollars and this shows that value of the gold that Iran bought has increased about three times. 

The central banker also added that value of Iran’s foreign exchange reserves has increased 6.5 billion dollars as the central bank changed some its reserves from dollar to other currencies.

---Sanctions against central bank a political bluff

Bahmani called attempts by the U.S. Senate to impose sanctions on Iran’s central bank a ‘political bluff’.

His comments came after some U.S. senators signed a letter to President Barack Obama pressing him to sanction Iran’s Bank Markazi.

The American legislators claim that the measure could potentially freeze Iran out of the global financial system, and make it nearly impossible for Tehran to clear billions of dollars in oil sales every month.

Bahmani said U.S. officials previously accused Bank Markazi to money laundering and financial terrorism during the 2010 annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington.

“We responded to the accusations in the meeting and proved that U.S. views the matter purely political, so the participants of the meeting accepted the remarks of Iran’s delegate and the issue was terminated there,” Bahmani explained.

Bahmani announced that he will participate in the next IMF meeting to “defend Iran’s banking legitimacy and dismissing U.S. accusations”.

Iran is not afraid of new sanctions and any move to isolate the country economically will only spur self-sufficiency, he noted.

Last month, Iranian lawmaker Ali Aqazadeh-Dafsari told Mehr News agency that the U.S. should save its failing economy and resolve its financial woes before considering fresh sanctions against Iran.

The lawmaker also stated that attempts by U.S. senators to impose sanctions on Bank Markazi over Iran's peaceful nuclear program is simply meant to divert the American public opinion from the financial crisis that has hit the country.