Hoshang Hadianpour, spokesperson of the Parliament’s Agriculture Commission, said about the possibility of purchasing American rice in exchange for Iran’s frozen assets: «We are explicitly opposed to buying this rice. First, we are not willing to buy goods from our enemy, and second, we are not supposed to have our money given back to us in the form of U.S. agricultural inputs.»

The representative of Zarand said: «For us, it has not yet been made clear whether such a thing has happened in the first place or not. And even if American rice is to be imported, we are strongly opposed to its import, because it may be transgenic products, and if that is the case, it could have negative and inappropriate effects. We are following up on the issue so that such a thing does not happen.»

Hadianpour said: «We believe that Europe and the United States have never been honest with us during the 47 years since the Islamic Revolution. A case in point is the story of contaminated blood that was brought into the country from France, and despite being contaminated with the AIDS virus, it was provided to the country to save the lives of Iranian children and citizens.»