Iran Dollar Ban for Imports in Line With Currency Policy

The new directive, which bans the use of the US dollar in import order registrations by Iranian traders, serves the double purpose of sidelining the US dollar and curbing the volatility that gripped the foreign exchange market in recent weeks. 
The directive, announced unexpectedly by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade on Wednesday, states that import orders by merchants based on US currency would no longer be allowed to go through. 
The ban was predictable, considering Iran's efforts to ditch the US dollar in its international dealings in response to US primary sanctions that bans dollar transactions by Iranian nationals. 
Iran had for long complained that the benefits of the nuclear deal it signed with world powers, including Washington, in 2015 failed to deliver the economic windfall promised to Iran, prompting the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif to refer to those gains as "almost nothing".  
An update by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2016 clarified that banks can engage in US dollar-denominated transactions involving Iran or Iranian parties as long as those transactions do not pass through the United States or otherwise involve a US person–an announcement that almost did nothing to remove confusion.