Mehdi Kuchakzadeh, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly representing Tehran, criticized the Central Bank’s approaches to the exchange rate, saying: “They’re selling the country to America. I said this is a crime. By God, if I weren’t afraid of hell, I would set myself on fire in front of the Central Bank today.”

Kuchakzadeh, criticizing the Central Bank’s move to sell $10,000 to real individuals, said: “People who are taking subsidies—if they have two and a half billion tomans, they can go buy 10 thousand dollars, and then their subsidies would be cut; so they don’t do it. Where does this 10 thousand dollars go, besides ending up in the cushions of the wealthy?”

The representative for Tehran said: “In the end, why has this country become so ownerless that anyone can do whatever they want in this country? Prison has become normal now. It’s no problem—I’ll go to prison.”