Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has banned the import of home appliances made by LG and Samsung into the country, local reports have said.
Khamenei was said to have ordered the ban in response to a call by local producers to ban the import of home appliances from these two companies.
Their request followed Khamenei’s insistence in recent years to ramp up local production of goods and banning the import of similar products.
Khamenei is said to have written a letter to President Ibrahim Raisi in this regard.
Following the letter, Raisi ordered the industry and commerce minister to stop the import of LG and Samsung home appliances, said the local reports.
The reports also pointed out that South Korea had frozen Iranian assets worth $7 billion at the request of the United States.
They also said Samsung and LG left Iran when the US, under then-president Donald Trump, imposed sanctions on it.
Trump did this as he withdrew the US from the nuclear deal that Iran had with it and five other world powers.
Now, under President Joe Biden, the US is trying to get Iran back to the table for negotiations to re-engage the deal.
However, both the US and the European Union have accused Iran of taking things slow when it comes to returning to the negotiation table.