During the Monday open session of the parliament, the
lawmakers ratified a bill which allows the Rouhani administration to issue $3
billion dollars’ worth of Sukuk bonds in order to fund petroleum projects.
Islamic bonds, structured in such a way as to generate
returns to investors without infringing Islamic law (that prohibits riba or
interest.)
Sukuk represents undivided shares in the ownership of
tangible assets relating to particular projects or special investment activity.
A sukuk investor has a common share in the ownership of the assets linked to
the investment although this does not represent a debt owed to the issuer of
the bond.