Iranian president Hassan Rohani accused his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of having “a lack of wisdom” and said: “Under the pretext of circumventing sanctions, they gave the oil away to those who took it away for themselves and in effect circumvented the Iranian people.”

ISNA reports that in a speech in Chahar Mahal Bakhtiari on August 7, President Rohani said: “No games are being played in order to cover up such scandals.”

Rohani has been highly critical of the former administration and in May he was also quoted as saying that “using the slogan of fighting against the super powers, they picked the public’s pocket and looted their property.”

He said today that while his administration is not given to picking fights with others, he believes that the people have to be informed about what has gone on in the past.

In recent years, Iran has been the target of extensive international sanctions with respect to its oil and financial sector. The sanctions coupled with a series of changes in the distribution of government subsidies have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy, causing severe inflation and a steep fall in the value of the national currency.

The Rohani administration is hard at work trying to remove these sanctions through negotiations with the 5+1. Already the IMF has reported greater stability in the Iranian economy but it added that concrete economic growth requires job creation, which has not yet materialized.

Radio Zamaneh