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US sanctions inflicted $1 trillion damage on Iran’s economy: FM – Al Jazeera English

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Tehran, Iran – Unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States inflicted $1 trillion worth of damage on Iran’s economy and Tehran expects compensation, its foreign minister said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday after the US takes action to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers through lifting sanctions, Tehran will want to negotiate on the damages it has suffered.

“When we meet, we will raise compensation,” Zarif told the Iranian state-owned news network PressTV in an hour-long interview.

“Whether those compensations will take the form of reparation, or whether they take the form of investment, or whether they take the form of measures to prevent a repeat of what Trump did,” he said in reference to former US President Donald Trump.

Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed harsh, comprehensive sanctions that targeted all the sectors of Iran’s economy.

According to Zarif, Trump reimposed 800 sanctions that were put on Iran before the nuclear deal and imposed 800 new ones, all of which need to be lifted before the US can return to the deal.

The diplomat said from other signatories of the nuclear deal, China and Russia have been Iran’s “friends” during the sanctions era, evidence for which are dozens of sanctions imposed on their individuals and entities.

But Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the European signatories of the deal together known as the E3, have engaged in no tangible efforts to maintain their ties with Iran, Zarif said.

“The situation Europe has created for itself is that it has to wait for the US to make a decision. It lives at the behest and mercy of the US,” he said.

“Now, they should convince the US to come back [to the nuclear deal] at least to allow them … to maintain their dignity and allow them to fulfil their obligations. That’s not a tall order.”

‘We got what we wanted’

Iran’s foreign minister said if the US fails to lift sanctions, Iran will continue to boost its nuclear programme as per the law but will have no need to leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is formally known.

One year after Trump imposed sanctions, Iran gradually scaled back its commitments under the deal.

But after top Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in November, the conservative parliament passed legislation that obligated the government to start 20 percent uranium enrichment and increase the country’s stockpile.

“This is not a threat. We are simply exercising the remedial measures foreseen in the JCPOA,” he said, adding Iran is only after normalising economic relations with the world and does not want to engage in “nuclear extortion” as former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed.

Instead, Zarif said, the US is engaging in extortion as it is still preventing Iran from buying food, medicine, and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The foreign minister also said the US is still blocking Iran’s request for a $5bn loan from the International Monetary Fund to fight the pandemic and is still preventing other countries such as South Korea from paying back billions of dollars’ worth of Iran’s money.

Joe Biden’s administration, he said, is still continuing the “maximum pressure” campaign of Trump despite promising to restore the JCPOA.

However, Zarif said Iran will have no need to abandon the nuclear deal.

“We got what we wanted out of the JCPOA. End of [United Nations] Security Council resolutions. End of US lies about our nuclear programme,” he said, adding Iran is the only country in the world to have its right to enrich uranium recognised by a UN Security Council resolution.

He also said Iran is now much less dependent on oil, so it can continue if the US fails to come back to the accord.

A security vehicle passes in front of the Natanz nuclear facility 300km south of Tehran [File: Reuters]

‘No more camera tapes’

As part of the law passed by Parliament in December, the government of President Hassan Rouhani must end snap inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by Sunday since US sanctions have not been lifted.

However, since IAEA General-Director Rafael Grossi offered to visit Tehran to discuss the move, Iran postponed implementation to Tuesday.

Grossi met with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Zarif on Sunday, but no details on the talks were released.

In his interview, however, Zarif said the decision to cut off the cameras installed by the IAEA in Iran’s nuclear sites is a technical one that will not be made by him.

“We will be required by law not to provide the tapes of those cameras to the IAEA,” the foreign minister added.

Grossi will hold a news conference in Vienna later on Sunday after leaving Tehran.

On Sunday, 226 members of Iran’s parliament signed a statement that emphasised Iran must stop voluntarily implementing the Additional Protocol, which provides broad inspection authority to the IAEA, starting on Tuesday.

Zarif conducted his interview with PressTV’s Marzieh Hashemi, an Iranian American journalist whose arrest and week-long detention in the US by the FBI sparked another diplomatic spat and increased tensions between the two countries.

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Energy stocks help lift S&P/TSX composite, U.S. stock markets also up

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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.

The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Canada’s inflation rate hits 2% target, reaches lowest level in more than three years

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OTTAWA – Canada’s inflation rate fell to two per cent last month, finally hitting the Bank of Canada’s target after a tumultuous battle with skyrocketing price growth.

The annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021.

Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report on Tuesday attributed the slowdown in part to lower gasoline prices.

Clothing and footwear prices also decreased on a month-over-month basis, marking the first decline in the month of August since 1971 as retailers offered larger discounts to entice shoppers amid slowing demand.

The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures of inflation, which strip out volatility in prices, also edged down in August.

The marked slowdown in price growth last month was steeper than the 2.1 per cent annual increase forecasters were expecting ahead of Tuesday’s release and will likely spark speculation of a larger interest rate cut next month from the Bank of Canada.

“Inflation remains unthreatening and the Bank of Canada should now focus on trying to stimulate the economy and halting the upward climb in the unemployment rate,” wrote CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.

Benjamin Reitzes, managing director of Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO, said Tuesday’s figures “tilt the scales” slightly in favour of more aggressive cuts, though he noted the Bank of Canada will have one more inflation reading before its October rate announcement.

“If we get another big downside surprise, calls for a 50 basis-point cut will only grow louder,” wrote Reitzes in a client note.

The central bank began rapidly hiking interest rates in March 2022 in response to runaway inflation, which peaked at a whopping 8.1 per cent that summer.

The central bank increased its key lending rate to five per cent and held it at that level until June 2024, when it delivered its first rate cut in four years.

A combination of recovered global supply chains and high interest rates have helped cool price growth in Canada and around the world.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem recently signalled that the central bank is ready to increase the size of its interest rate cuts, if inflation or the economy slow by more than expected.

Its key lending rate currently stands at 4.25 per cent.

CIBC is forecasting the central bank will cut its key rate by two percentage points between now and the middle of next year.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected on Wednesday to deliver its first interest rate cut in four years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Federal money and sales taxes help pump up New Brunswick budget surplus

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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.

Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.

The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.

Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.

Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.

Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.

Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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