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Iran in ‘all-out’ economic, military, security war: President Pezeshkian

Tehran, Aug 23 (IANS) Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday the country is in an “all-out” economic, military, and security war with the “enemies.”

Despite the US pressure, “we are standing and making efforts to serve the people in the face of this unequal war,” Pezeshkian said in a televised speech carried by the official news agency IRNA.

The government is making “wholehearted” efforts to reduce inflation and resolve people’s economic problems, he added.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a statement on Sunday that the United States has no other way but to speak respectfully with the Iranian people, according to IRNA.

The anti-Iran economic operation claimed by US President Donald Trump is a “recurring scenario and the same bullying that always occurs in US policies,” he said, adding: “In a sense, it is a repetitive film that we have watched over and over and know how to deal with.”

In a Wednesday post on Truth Social, Trump announced “the most crushing economic operation ever taken” against any country providing a lifeline to Iran, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” he said, calling the move “an ECONOMIC D-DAY.”

On June 18, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war in the region on all fronts, including Lebanon. Under the MoU, they were scheduled to hold negotiations within 60 days, which ended on Monday, to reach a final agreement, but the fate of the talks remains unclear following the escalation between the two countries last month.

A senior Iranian security official on Saturday warned neighbouring countries and other states against joining the United States in its “economic pressure campaign” against his nation, saying Tehran would regard such countries as “enemies”.

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in an interview with state-run IRIB TV that Iran would first seek dialogue with countries involved and urge them not to participate in what he called the US “economic war” against his nation.

–IANS

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