TEHRAN – Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagheri Ghalibaf on Monday called for wise political decisions, saying Iran is in a full-blown economic war which demands careful decision-making.

The speaker warned against taking rash economic decisions 

“We should accept that we are in a full-blown economic war, and not every decision can be made in this economic war,” Ghalibaf said, according to Mehr. 

“We should beware of our measures,” he said during a meeting with young members of the Iranian Parliament.

Professor Hossein Askari, who teaches international business at the George Washington University, says the United States has called U.S. sanctions on Iran “an act of war”.

“Let me say that the U.S. sanctions on Iran are an act of war. The impact on Iran is as if America was fighting a war but without bombs and bullets,” Askari told the Tehran Times after the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on the remaining Iranian banks on October 8. 

The parliament speaker also said reaching a common understanding is the first thing to do in order to resolve the country’s problems.

The U.S. imposed an economic war on Iran under the administration of Donald Trump after he unilaterally pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal. The U.S. says the sanctions it has imposed on Iran is part of its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

In remarks on Monday, Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi said the country’s problems can be solved by the capable hands of the Iranian nation.

“The solution to resolve economic problems lies in the economic sector and pursuing political solutions to resolve economic problems is wrong,” Raisi noted on Monday.

In July, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said all economic problems can be solved through self-reliance thinking and national confidence.

“If self-reliance thinking and national confidence, especially among the youth, be on the rise and the country’s strong capabilities are tapped, and illusory hopes on outside borders… are weakened, I am quite confident that economic problems are solvable,” the Leader told the parliament via videoconferencing on July 12.

The parliament should prioritize issues, avoid being drawn into marginal issues and also work honestly for the people, Ayatollah Khamenei added.

MH/PA