Iran’s cabinet approved a shuffle to its economic team and assigned a new governor for the central bank following the aggravated economic crisis as the country faces renewed US sanctions. During the first six months of this year, Iranian economy registered a significant decline and the central banks efforts couldn’t prevent the local currency from sliding against the US dollar. Over 80 cities in Iran witnessed a wave of protests against rising prices, deteriorating living conditions and high unemployment rate. On Wednesday, Tasnim news agency reported that President Rouhani approved Abdolnaser Hemmati, Iran’s current Ambassador to China, to replace Valiollah Seif as governor of the central bank. Hemmati was formerly the managing director of Bank Melli and Sina Bank. Rouhani is now facing a backlash from rival hardliners over his economic policies and Washington’s pullout from the pact in May. Reuters reported that the head of the Management and Planning Organization of Iran, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, had also been replaced. But Nobakht said that President Rouhani had not accepted his resignation. Government officials have pressed him to reshuffle his economic team to better shield the economy from sanctions. The new appointment of central bank’s governor suggests Rouhani, who has mostly promoted moderate economic successes of his tenure since global sanctions were lifted under the nuclear deal, is conceding a need for change to defuse criticism. “The situation today requires that a new force with fresh breath be brought in,” Rouhani said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). “I hope that by choosing appropriate tactics and methods, we can witness good developments on monetary, economic and banking issues,” he added. In May, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Seif himself, accusing him of “moving millions of dollars” for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Separately, Nobakht said that he had submitted his resignation but Rouhani had not accepted it, according to reports on the website of the Management and Planning Organization and IRNA. IRNA quoted Rouhani’s chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi as saying that reports of Nobakht being replaced were untrue. A local reformist newspaper quoted in its Wednesday issue several sources stating that the government’s economic team will undergo changes.