As several Iranian cities were hit by power outages that led to protests, Iranian officials have scrambled to take action and assign blame.

At a cabinet meeting July 7, President Hassan Rouhani talked about the energy needs of the country and plans to increase its energy output through infrastructure investment. However, he said that due to the sanctions that former US President Donald Trump put on Iran, the $4.5 billion in investment that was ready for the energy sector never materialized. He never clarified where the money was supposed to come from.

Rouhani continued that Iran’s refusal to sign the bills that would bring the country into compliance with the Financial Action Task Force has made it difficult for Iran to conduct banking transactions, which has led to a suspension of infrastructure investments. The Rouhani administration was an advocate of the bills but hard-liners in the country argued that signing them would give foreign countries too much access to Iran’s banking information.   

In his final weeks in office, Rouhani made on more push for signing the FATF bills, saying, “We became victorious in the economic war but the issue of sanctions remains, which is in our hands.” He added, “Some of it is in others' hands but we are primarily [responsible]. We can make a decision this week and finish it.”