Iranians under pressure from America, economic problems

THE people of Iran face a sensitive time because of the pressure from America and economic problems, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a key address broadcast by state television yesterday.

Khamenei was speaking to tens of thousands of members of the Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards’ leaders in a stadium in Tehran.

Discord between Iran and the US has worsened since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic in May and reimposed sanctions.

“The situation of the nation, region and world is sensitive, especially for us people of Iran,” Khamenei said.

“Sensitive in this respect that on one hand we have the shouting of the arrogant powers and politicians of imperialist America… on another hand the economic problems of the nation and the tightness of the livelihood of a large portion of the weak people in the country.”

The Iranian rial has lost 75% of its value since the beginning of the year.

The US has said it plans to impose new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector early next month, with the aim of stopping Iran’s involvement in conflicts in Syria and Iraq and bring the Islamic Republic to the negotiating table for its ballistic missile programme.

Iranian officials have said they are involved in the Syrian conflict at the request of President Bashar al-Assad and have refused any negotiations on their missile programme.

At a press briefing in Geneva yesterday, Robert Wood, the US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, said: “We want to see Iran no longer operating in Syria… And we will continue to tighten sanctions on Iran – you will be seeing some new steps in November, and we’ll go from there.”

In his speech, Khamenei also said that Iran must deliver a slap to America by defeating sanctions.

“With the kindness of God, we will defeat sanctions, and the defeat of sanctions is the defeat of America,” he said.