Tehran Chamber calls for revising the anti-smuggling law and Article 186 to fit wartime conditions

Abbas Argoun, a member of the presiding board of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, said on Thursday, 8 Mordad 1405 (30 July 2026) that current regulations were drafted for normal conditions and that with the country under wartime conditions and a naval blockade in its southern areas, businesses cannot operate under the same peacetime rules. The report, credited to the Mehr news agency, was published at 10:23am Tehran time.

He proposed suspending or revising the Law on Combating the Smuggling of Goods and Currency, as well as amending Article 186, and warned that if regulations and bylaws are not changed to match conditions, economic activity will be disrupted, and that damage to the private sector would ultimately leave the government worse off too.

Argoun said policies and executive rules need to be reviewed in light of the country's exceptional circumstances. The report noted that war-related restrictions and disruption to trade routes have raised the cost and risk of doing business, and that applying earlier rules unchanged could become a double obstacle to production and trade. Any revision, it said, should preserve oversight and transparency while avoiding added bureaucracy and unnecessary costs.