Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, May 20 - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the state-owned Bank Refah to change its name.

Ali Dehqan-kia, a member of the Board of Directors of the Tehran Islamic Labour Council’s Coordinating Association, told the state-run news agency Borna over the weekend that the bank was ordered to change its name from “Bank Refah, a bank for all’’ to ‘Bank Refah Kargaran” (Workers Welfare Bank).

Dehqan-kia said that Iranian workers had repeatedly asked the judiciary to change the name of Bank Refah bank in favour of its main shareholders.

He added, “It seems that following the president’s clear order and repeated demands of the workers community, the name of Bank Refah will change soon”.

However, one analyst based in Tehran told Iran Focus that the move may be aimed at evading prospective UN Security Council sanctions over Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

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