Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of Iran’s parliament, has called on the Iranian government to develop a strategy to counter U.S. economic sanctions and make the country’s economy more resilient to external pressure.
Speaking at a meeting of Iranian and Iraqi businesspeople in Baghdad on Thursday, August 20, Ghalibaf said that military power alone is not enough to ensure a country’s survival and that the economy must also be strong.
“We may have as much military power as possible, but if people are hungry and we lack financial circulation, economic growth, and domestic production, we will not survive,” he said.
The Iranian parliament speaker also said that Tehran must have a plan to confront sanctions. “We must develop a strategy to overcome the unjust sanctions so that we can prevail over them,” he stressed.
Ghalibaf described security and the economy as closely interconnected, saying that without security, investment will not take place, while security without economic support will not be sustainable.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he called for greater use of the Iranian and Iraqi national currencies in bilateral trade, saying this could help reduce the role of the U.S. dollar in transactions between Tehran and Baghdad.
His comments come as U.S. President Donald Trump announced this week the launch of a major economic campaign against Iran.
Trump said countries conducting economic transactions with Iran could face heavy U.S. sanctions.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the new sanctions would “bring the Iranian regime to collapse.”
Bessent described the measures as “the largest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world” and urged U.S. allies to comply with the sanctions.
writer:Salima Aryaei
