Iran vice president urges fight against enemy's economic war

'We are facing a new and difficult situation, regarding the economic warfare waged by the enemy against Iran, and we should fight forcefully,' Eshaq Jahangiri said, addressing a ceremony held for inauguration of an expansion project of the Saba Steel Complex in Isfahan.

'The country now is in a unique historic era as, according to what US officials say, the Treasury of the United States has turned into an economic war room against Iran,' Jahangiri said.

'Their behavior shows that they intend to exacerbate the economic conditions in Iran and, by promoting discontent among the Iranian public, meet their ends,' he said.

'This is a strategy adopted by the United States, the Zionist regime of Israel and Saudis,' the Iranian first vice president said.

Jahangiri went on to emphasize that, in order to deal with the US measures, both people and officials in Iran need to adopt an appropriate strategy.

'We should, through resistance, precise planning and careful implementation [of our projects] foil Washington's plots,' he said.

'We should maintain the country's economy to protect the people's livelihood,' the first vice president added.

He said that the US economic war is not restricted to Iran, as Washington is already engaged in an economic warfare with China.

US president [Donald Trump] wants to impose new sanctions against Iran within the next three to six months, Jahangiri said.

'The White House is also putting pressure on its allies to join the US in the economic war against Iran,' he added.

Jahangiri said that one of their main goals is cutting Iran's oil exports to zero, he said.

'But in order to achieve this end, Washington needs to persuade other countries to give in to the US pressures and accept a low-key trivial stance,' he said.

Iran's first vice president said that the country has put in place mechanisms to deal with US sanctions and is engaged in talks with buyers of the Iranian oil to avoid any problems.

'Regarding Iran's non-oil exports, we again have done a lot of planning to abort their plots and ward off any problems in the export of our non-oil commodities, including steel, copper and petrochemical products,' Jahangiri said.

Referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he said that 'we should see how committed are other parties to the deal in practice and what guarantees they are going to offer'.

'Iran has been committed to all its JCPOA obligations, but the other parties have failed to do so,' Jahangiri stressed.

'They used to say that the main reason behind their efforts to put Iran under sanctions was that Tehran remained to snub seating at the negotiating table,' he said, referring to the US disloyalties.

'Now the question is why they are continuing their sanctions against Iran despite the country's engagement in the main talks,' he said.

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