Gholamreza Noori Ghezeljeh, the Minister of Agriculture Jihad, announced that a portion of the contracts for purchasing agricultural products during Ebrahim Raisi’s administration was signed with American companies, with the funding sourced from Iran’s frozen foreign exchange assets.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, July 1, Noori Ghezeljeh confirmed previous statements made by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. He explained that certain agricultural agreements were facilitated using frozen currency resources resulting from sanctions. According to the minister, the United States issued licenses to American companies to sell goods so that these specific funds could be utilized, and the purchases were subsequently made directly from those firms.
At the same time, he emphasized that this mechanism had no impact on the purchase price of the products, noting that the pricing benchmarks were determined based on criteria set by Iran.
The Agriculture Minister’s remarks came just one day after Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf spoke during a televised interview about purchasing agricultural products from US companies during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, a specific segment of his interview that was abruptly censored and cut short by state television.
