The Minister of Agriculture Jihad of the Islamic Republic confirmed recent remarks by the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly about the signing of agricultural contracts with American companies during the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi. Gholamreza Nouri Qazlch had said to an Iranian media outlet that in 1401 [2022/2023] the United States had only allowed some of the blocked foreign-currency resources to be spent in a contract with certain companies that were mostly American. He emphasized that such an agreement with the United States related to the “previous government” and that it had been stated that if money were to be released, it had to be used to buy from American companies. Qazlch, however, claimed: “This did not affect the price discussion and was based on the pricing we ourselves carried out.” Earlier, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, had said: “The money that is taken [from Iran’s blocked assets] will go to American farmers, and all this money will be returned to [the U.S.] in the form of the purchase of food supplies that [the Iranians] desperately need.”