Hemmati: Central Bank Has Stockpiled Foreign Currency Against Threatened US 100 Percent Sanctions

Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of Iran's Central Bank, said on the evening of Sunday, 8 Shahrivar 1405 (August 30, 2026), at a meeting with members of Iran's Entrepreneurs Assembly, that the country's monetary policymaker has not sat idle in the face of new US threats and what has been called a 100 percent sanctions push against Iran, Ecoiran reported. He said the central bank anticipated a possible escalation of sanctions conditions starting last Bahman (January or February 2026) and has been stockpiling foreign currency to plan for the country's foreign exchange needs.

The remarks come as the free market dollar rate has been rising in Tehran in recent days, and follow Hemmati's earlier position, when, responding to US Treasury sanctions on several crypto exchanges, he had said the volume of the country's foreign currency supply had increased from a year earlier.