Iran says it’s not obligated to buy US agricultural products under signed agreements

Iran is not obligated to purchase agricultural products from the United States under existing agreements, the country’s Central Bank governor said Monday.

Speaking to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, Abdolnaser Hemmati said: “Based on the signed memorandums, there is no obligation to buy agricultural inputs from the United States.”

He said the mechanism governing the use of the “first $6 billion” in frozen Iranian assets was based on a 2023 agreement between Tehran and Washington covering essential goods and medicine.

Hemmati added that Iran could still buy American agricultural products if their prices and quality were more favorable than those offered by other countries.

He also said Iran imports billions of dollars’ worth of essential goods and medicine annually and that Tehran’s priority is access to its own foreign currency reserves.

According to Hemmati, additional frozen Iranian funds would not necessarily be limited to purchases of essential goods and could also be used to buy other non-sanctioned products.

The remarks came after US President Donald Trump said Sunday that any Iranian funds unfrozen under a future agreement with Washington would be used for food purchases from the United States.

“All that money’s coming back in the form of purchases of food which they desperately need,” Trump told reporters.

“They have 91 million people, they can’t feed them,” he claimed.