Tehran, Aug 25:
Iran’s top security official Mohsen Rezaei warned that any country participating in the US economic war against Iran will be considered an “enemy” by Tehran. Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the remarks on Saturday in an interview with state-run IRIB TV.
He said Iran would first negotiate with such countries and ask them to stay out of the conflict, but warned that if they refuse, Tehran will strike their interests, and that if surrounding countries choose to join the US siege, Iran “will not let even a single drop of oil be exported from the Strait of Hormuz.”
He noted that Iran has learned how to bypass US sanctions and continue oil sales over the years, Xinhua news agency reported. Rezaei also repeated that the Hormuz Strait will remain closed unless the United States fulfills its commitments under the Iran-US peace memorandum of understanding signed in June, adding that Washington must act first this time.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that the US anti-Iran economic operation is doomed to fail like its other coercive measures against the country.
Iran’s president says his country needs to get past current stall
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended a recent memorandum of understanding as the best way for the country to move beyond what he described as a situation of “neither war nor peace.” In a speech published by state-run IRNA early on Sunday, he said members of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council believed the memorandum represented the best possible agreement based on what he described as dignity, wisdom and the national interest.
“There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,” Pezeshkian said. “The supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path.”
The deal known as the Memorandum of Understanding that US President Donald Trump signed in June set an ambitious 60-day deadline for ending the war with Iran and reaching an accord on its nuclear programme.
That period ended last week, but the two sides remain far apart, with no signs of compromise on the crucial issue of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, vital to global shipping. While stressing that Tehran did not intend to back down in the face of its adversaries, Pezeshkian also linked the agreement to Iran’s economic prospects, saying the country could not attract investment in this stalled phase.
“Capital and money are extremely sensitive to risk,” he said. “We have to remove this risk from the country.” Nearly six months into the war with the United States and Israel, the Iranian economy is suffering under sanctions and a naval blockade that is making it extremely difficult for the country to export oil, its most valuable product.