Yemeni riyal hits fresh low of 1,630 per dollar

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A cashier counts Yemeni riyal banknotes at a local currency exchange in Aden, Yemen, June 29, 2021. (Reuters)

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Updated 30 January 2024

Saeed Al-Batati

January 30, 2024 18:29

Yemeni riyal hits fresh low of 1,630 per dollar

Yemeni government in Aden has set up a committee to address the riyal’s recent decline
Currency speculation by black-market money merchants blamed for the currency’s fast depreciation

Updated 30 January 2024

Saeed Al-Batati

January 30, 2024 18:29

AL-MUKALLA: The Yemeni riyal on Tuesday broke a record of 1,630 per dollar, moving closer to its all-time low of 1,700 in government-controlled areas.

Local money dealers said the Yemeni riyal was exchanged at 1,632 against the dollar in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, and other government-controlled areas, up from 1,500 riyals a few months earlier.

The Yemeni riyal fell to a historic low of 1,540 against the dollar in government-controlled territory in November, after hovering around 1,200 against the dollar since the creation of the internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council in April 2022.

It fell to an all-time low of 1,700 per dollar in December 2021, compared to 250 in early 2015.

This week, the Yemeni government in Aden set up a committee to address the riyal’s recent decline.

During previous rounds of currency depreciation, Yemen’s Aden-based central bank closed unlicensed exchange firms, held public auctions to sell hard currency to local traders, replaced the unofficial remittance system between exchange companies, and requested that authorized exchange firms and banks send their financial statements to the bank.

All steps have failed to stop the decline of the Yemeni riyal.

Only billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and the UAE in financial packages and deposits into Aden’s central bank have enabled the Yemeni riyal to rebound briefly before continuing its downward trend.

Yemen’s government has long blamed currency speculation by black-market money merchants for the currency’s fast depreciation. It has also cited a full stop in oil exports, the country’s primary source of wealth, following Houthi attacks on oil facilities in October last year as another cause for depreciation.

The decline of the riyal has raised the cost of necessities like rice, wheat, petrol, and transportation, as well as sparked violent demonstrations in Aden, Al-Mukalla, and other Yemeni cities controlled by the government.

Yemeni experts believe the recent fast depreciation of the currency is unsurprising given the central bank’s depletion of hard currency reserves and the Yemeni government’s failure to regulate the black market.

The director of the Studies and Economic Media Center, Mustafa Nasr, told Arab News on Tuesday that the Yemeni riyal would continue to fall in the upcoming months if the current circumstances persisted, including the sharp decline in the government’s earnings from oil exports, tax and customs collections, as well as its inability to control the black market.

Nasr added that if the central bank had kept printing new notes, the riyal would have reached its all-time low of 1,700 earlier.

“Given these difficulties, which align with a condition of speculation by powerful and wealthy money changers, it is not shocking that the value of the riyal declined to more than 1,600 riyals per dollar,” Nasr said.

Israel sends Mossad chief to Qatar for Gaza hostage negotiations

Updated 05 July 2024

AFP

July 05, 2024 08:13

Israel sends Mossad chief to Qatar for Gaza hostage negotiations

Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet late Thursday to discuss new Hamas proposals sent through Qatari and Egyptian mediators
Israel believes dozens of hostages are still alive and both sides face mounting pressure to reach a deal as the war takes increasing human toll

Updated 05 July 2024

AFP

July 05, 2024 08:13

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered his spy chief to Qatar for talks with mediators on a Gaza war ceasefire that could see Hamas militants release hostages seized in the October 7 attacks, sources said.

Amidst new optimism over a possible breakthrough, Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet for late Thursday to discuss new Hamas proposals sent through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, reports said.

Israel believes dozens of hostages are still alive in Gaza and with the war taking an increasing human toll in the devastated Palestinian territory both sides face mounting international pressure to reach a deal.

Mossad chief David Barnea was to lead an Israeli delegation to Qatar that has spent months trying to bring the enemies to the negotiating table, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. He was expected in Doha on Friday and was to meet the Gulf state’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Barnea’s delegation “is traveling to Qatar in a continuation of talks on a ceasefire and hostage deal.

“He will meet with the Qatari prime minister for discussions aiming to bring the parties closer to a deal in Gaza,” the source said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of talks.

US President Joe Biden praised the decision to send a delegation in a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, the White House said. Biden welcomed the decision to have Israeli negotiators “engage” with mediators in a bid “to close out the deal.”

The United States believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages, a senior US official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas proposal “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal,” while stressing it does not mean an agreement was likely in coming days, and that “significant work” remains.

Hamas had demanded an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal as a prelude to any hostage deal.

Israel has countered that there can be no end to the war without the release of hostages. Netanyahu has also repeatedly vowed that the Gaza campaign will not end until Hamas’s military and government capabilities have been destroyed.

Hamas said late Wednesday that it had sent new “ideas” for a potential deal and Netanyahu’s office said the government was “evaluating” them.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been mediating between the two sides and sources close to their efforts said they have been pushing for several weeks to bridge the “gaps” between the foes.

Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May which he said had been proposed by Israel. This included a six-week truce to allow for talks, the release of hostages and eventually a program to rebuild devastated Gaza.

“There are important developments in the latest proposals with positive options for both sides,” said a diplomat briefed on the latest proposals. “This time the Americans are very serious about this.”

The war started with the October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 38,011 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Polls open in Iran presidential election runoff

Updated 05 July 2024

AFP

July 05, 2024 04:55

Polls open in Iran presidential election runoff

The Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot when the polls opened at 08:00 am
Khamenei called for a higher turnout in the runoff

Updated 05 July 2024

AFP

July 05, 2024 04:55

TEHRAN: Polls opened Friday for Iran’s runoff presidential election, the interior ministry said, pitting reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili in the race to succeed Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash.
The Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all state matters, cast his ballot when the polls opened at 08:00 am (0430 GMT), state TV showed.
“We are starting the second round of the 14th presidential election to choose the future president from among the two candidates across 58,638 polling stations in the country and all stations abroad,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to state TV.
The vote comes against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions over the war in Gaza, Iran’s dispute with the West over its nuclear program and popular discontent at the state of the country’s sanctions-hit economy.
In last week’s first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only reformist permitted to stand, won the largest number of ballots, around 42 percent, while the former nuclear negotiator Jalili came in second place with 39 percent, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority.
Only 40 percent of Iran’s 61 million eligible voters cast their ballot — the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
On Wednesday, Khamenei called for a higher turnout in the runoff.
“The second round of the presidential election is very important,” he said in a video carried by state TV.
Low turnout
He said participation was “not as expected” in the first round but that it was not an act “against the system.”
Last week’s vote saw the conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf come in third place with 13.8 percent, while cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi garnered less than one percent.
Iran’s presidential election was originally scheduled for 2025 but was brought forward by the death of ultraconservative president Raisi in a May helicopter crash.
The rival candidates in the runoff have held two debates where they discussed Iran’s economic woes, international relations, the low voter turnout and Internet restrictions.
Pezeshkian is a 69-year-old heart surgeon who has represented the northwestern city of Tabriz in parliament since 2008.
He has earned the support of Iran’s main reformist coalition, with former reformist presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani declaring their backing for his bid.
Jalili, 58, rallied a substantial base of hard-line supporters and received backing from Ghalibaf and two other ultraconservative candidates who dropped out of the race before the first round.
In one recent debate, the rivals expressed dismay over turnout in the first round.
On Tuesday, Pezeshkian said people were “fed up with their living conditions ... and dissatisfied with the government’s management of affairs.”
Voters speak
Ali, a 24-year-old university student who asked that only his first name be used, said the better choice is Pezeshkian, whom he believes would work on “opening the country to the rest of the world.”
Pezeshkian has called for “constructive relations” with Washington and European countries in order to “get Iran out of its isolation.”
Jalili, known for his uncompromising anti-West position, has insisted that Tehran does not need the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers to make progress.
The deal — which Jalili said violated all Iran’s “red lines” by allowing inspections of nuclear sites — had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief.
The accord has been hanging by a thread since 2018 when the US withdrew from it.
At a campaign event late Wednesday, 40-year-old Maryam Naroui said she believed Jalili was “the best option for the country’s security.”
Jalili has held several senior positions in the Islamic republic, including in Khamenei’s office in the early 2000s.
He is currently one of Khamenei’s representatives in the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s highest security body.
Regardless of the result, Iran’s next president will be in charge of applying state policy outlined by the supreme leader, who wields ultimate authority in the country.

Topics: Iran

Israel sends Mossad chief to Qatar for Gaza hostage negotiations: sources

Updated 05 July 2024

AFP

July 05, 2024 00:19