New quotas spur Chinese buying of discounted Iranian oil - BBG

The paper said interruptions in care have intensified feelings of helplessness, despair and the recurrence of mental health symptoms among those unable to continue.

While the official psychotherapy tariff for the current Iranian year, which began in late March, is set at 5,000,000 to 6,200,000 rials ($4–$5) per session, actual prices in Tehran range from 10,000,000 to 50,000,000 rials ($8–$42), the report said.

It added that the minimum monthly wage for a married worker with two children is about 163,000,000 rials (around $137), while the average monthly income nationwide is 240,000,000 to 250,000,000 rials ($202–$210).

At these income levels, each therapy session costs the equivalent of one-third to one-fifth of a monthly salary for middle- and lower-income households.

Ham-Mihan’s report said that to respond to rising demand, the government has expanded a network of community mental-health centres known as Seraj, with about 100 centres now operating nationwide offering basic support.

However, it added that these centers do not offer psychotherapy and that coverage remains uneven and capacity limited, particularly outside major cities, forcing many patients toward the more expensive private sector.

The report cited a national study published this summer by Iran’s National Institute of Health Research found that 62.5% of people with psychiatric disorders felt they needed treatment in 2021–22, but only 35.7% received services — a rate unchanged from a decade earlier.

Cost was one of the main barriers, alongside stigma and the belief that symptoms would resolve without professional help.

Last December, Iran’s Health Ministry said one in four people in the country suffers from a psychiatric disorder, almost double the global estimate of one in eight according to World Health Organization (WHO) mental-health data.

Global data show Iran carries a heavier mental-health burden than the world average, with mental disorders accounting for 10.3% of total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 compared with roughly 8% globally, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), published by the UK-based medical journal The Lancet.

Meanwhile, last November, Iranian authorities announced plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the country's compulsory hijab rules.

The initiative, announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Department at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, would offer what she described as “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal,” signaling the government’s focus on behavioral enforcement even as access to mental-health care remains limited.

The previous $10,000 reporting threshold has been eliminated in favor of a zero-dollar threshold for any financial transaction to or from Iran.

Ottawa tightened the rules after the international anti-money laundering body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) again warned that Iran remains a high-risk jurisdiction for terrorism financing and sanctions evasion.

Canada says the new rules target funds that originate in Iran and may involve individuals, organizations or networks linked to the Islamic Republic using small transfers to evade sanctions or obscure the true source of money.

But because these transactions often resemble ordinary remittances, the government has argued, the measures now apply to anyone receiving money from Iran, even for legitimate reasons.

“There is a risk that the Islamic Republic of Iran may be facilitating sanctions evasion, which the Minister is of the opinion could have an adverse impact on the integrity of the Canadian financial system or the reputational risk to that system," Canada’s Finance Minister wrote in a statement.

Canada is home to one of the largest Iranian diaspora communities in the world — nearly 300,000 people — and many depend on incoming transfers from Iran, ranging from the sale of land or property and inheritance payments to financial support that parents send to their children studying at Canadian universities.

Remittances from professionals in Canada to loved ones in Iran are also widespread.

FINTRAC, or Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, is the independent federal agency reporting to the Ministry of Finance which is overseeing the rule change.

“With the changes, all businesses subject to the Act are required to report every financial transaction to or from Iran regardless of its amount,” a spokesperson for FINTRAC wrote to Iran International.

“Prior to this update," she added, "the Ministerial Directive only required banks, credit unions, foreign banks and money services businesses to report every financial transaction to or from Iran.”

'Uniquely challenging'

But experts warn that while the directive may make it harder for Islamic Republic-linked actors to move money, it may also create unintended consequences.

Investigative journalist Sam Cooper, one of Canada’s leading reporters on transnational crime, said Iran-linked transactions were particularly hard to detect.

“The regime and its proxies already operate through deep, global underground banking networks," said Cooper, author of Willful Blindness, a book on money laundering networks operating through Canada. "They work with transnational crime groups — from Hezbollah to Latin American cartels and their partners in places like Venezuela.”

Cooper added that tougher reporting rules often fall hardest on ordinary Iranians trying to send money through legitimate channels.

“They often hit ordinary Iranians who refuse to use those underground networks and end up locked out of legitimate banking instead. That can unintentionally strengthen Iranian, Chinese and Mexican criminal networks, which step in to provide ‘services’ that formal banks can no longer offer,” he said.

Canada shuttered its embassy and cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012 over what it called security concerns for its diplomats and Iran’s alleged support for terrorism and human-rights abuses.

The move is also being closely watched by those involved in shaping Canada’s sanctions policy. Brandon Silver, an international human rights lawyer has provided expert testimony before Parliament, welcomed the strengthened guidance which many in the sanctions community have long pushed for.

“This FINTRAC guidance on Iran is a reflection of the Islamic Republic’s culture of corruption and criminality,” Silver told Iran International.

“These funds are used to finance mass domestic repression and external aggression — whether it is the murder and maiming of Iranian women’s rights leaders, or the transnational repression targeting Canadians," he said, adding that he hoped other countries in the G7 grouping of wealthy democracies would impose their own curbs.

AFP reported that at least 34 ships linked to suspected sanctions evasion were Cook Islands–flagged over the period, including 20 cited on US sanctions lists and a further 14 on a British blacklist.

The flag is administered by Maritime Cook Islands, a private operator that runs the registry for the self-governing Pacific territory.

The analysis said shipowners could obtain Cook Islands papers without visiting the country, using a small beachside office – located next to a pizza shop – as their point of contact. The office serves as the headquarters for what AFP described as one of the world’s fastest-growing shipping registries.

New Zealand, which has a free-association relationship with the Cook Islands and retains responsibilities that include foreign affairs, said the findings show a policy divergence with the microstate and that Wellington has repeatedly raised concerns with its government.

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“New Zealand continues to hold serious concerns about how the Cook Islands has been managing its shipping registry, which it has repeatedly expressed to the Cook Islands government over many years... This is a completely unacceptable and untenable foreign policy divergence,” said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

Maritime Cook Islands said it does not harbor sanctioned vessels and that any ships accused of sanctions-busting are promptly deleted from the registry, adding that it conducts due diligence checks before registration.

Western sanctions aim to limit oil revenue for Tehran and Moscow.

Analysts say a “shadow fleet” uses reflagging, opaque ownership and ship-to-ship transfers to move cargoes outside mainstream maritime services – a practice that places added scrutiny on flag registries as enforcement widens to entities connected to suspect voyages.

The rise outstrips a previous record of 1.17 million hit on September 30 after European states moved to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, further constraining its trade opportunities.

By Monday afternoon, the dollar was trading at just over 1.19 million rials, the Euro about 1.38 million and the UK Pound near 1.57 million.

Local exchange-rate websites also showed the Emami gold coin — Iran’s most traded benchmark coin used by households and investors as a store of value — hitting a fresh record above 1.26 billion rials, extending a sharp rise that began over the weekend.

The latest slide in the rial comes amid soaring inflation, renewed volatility in Iran’s unofficial markets and continued uncertainty over stalled nuclear talks with the United States.

The US dollar, which traded at about 140,000 rials in 2018, has risen roughly eight-fold since Donald Trump restored US sanctions on Iran seven years ago.

Britain, France and Germany triggered the so-called snapback mechanism to restore UN sanction under Security Council Resolution 2231, citing Iran's failure to comply with its nuclear obligations.

The move restored UN penalties previously suspended under the resolution, tightening external constraints on Iran’s economy. Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and accuses the United States and European countries of economic warfare.

On Monday, local media reported that alongside fading hopes for reviving nuclear talks, rising gasoline prices have also contributed to turbulence in Iran’s currency and gold markets.

After months of debate, the government formally introduced a three-tier gasoline pricing system, with the third rate set to take effect at 50,000 rials on December 6.

Patients in Mashhad said rations shrank from two months to one week before stocks of the drug (mycophenolic acid 360 mg) “fell to zero,” with pharmacists advising a move to domestically made equivalents, the ILNA news agency reported.

Fatemeh Pour-Rezagholi, secretary of Iran’s Kidney Transplant Scientific Association, said originator-brand supplies have not been distributed recently, citing foreign-exchange constraints, sanctions-related frictions and customs delays.

She added that Iranian versions are available and effective for most patients, but unplanned brand changes can be stressful or risky for those early post-transplant or with prior rejection. Importers have indicated the original brand may return later in winter, according to ILNA.

Doctors and pharmacists told ILNA that 70-80% of recipients tolerate domestic formulations, but roughly 10-20% may require a specific brand or closer therapeutic-drug monitoring.

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Patient groups and clinicians are urging clearer import timetables, steadier FX allocation for critical transplant drugs and contingency guidance to minimize unplanned switches.

Clinicians say the fiscal and human costs are far higher if grafts fail and patients return to dialysis, and have asked regulators to protect a baseline of imports for high-risk cases while stabilizing domestic supply for the majority.

US sanctions policy formally exempts most medicines and many medical devices, with humanitarian channels – such as Switzerland’s state-backed payment mechanism – designed to process vetted transactions.

In practice, suppliers and aid groups say persistent “over-compliance” by global banks, shippers and insurers fearful of sanctions risk, which can delay or block payments, shipments and insurance even for lawful medical goods.

Economists also point to the rial’s volatility and domestic pricing and procurement rules as recurring hurdles that raise import costs and complicate supply planning.

According to Mehr News on Monday, Iran has raised medicine prices several times in recent months under a “realistic pricing” policy meant to support the domestic pharmaceutical industry, but insurance coverage has not kept pace – leaving patients to shoulder a growing share of drug costs as reimbursements lag behind the hikes.