Reuters: Iran will step up efforts to tackle problems and warns US of “painful response”
Iran said it will step up efforts to tackle problems created by U.S. sanctions that are crippling its economy, while a senior Iranian official warned of a “painful response” if it comes under further attack, Reuters reports.
As it is noted, six months after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran launched the war, the conflict appears to be at a stalemate. A preliminary ceasefire accord reached in June has unravelled, and little progress has been made in diplomatic efforts to get the peace process back on track.
After a pause in military action for much of August, tit-for-tat strikes have resumed with U.S. Central Command saying it hit three Iranian tankers on Saturday after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at two U.S. Navy ships.
Following the attacks, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday that the U.S. should understand that the rules of the game have changed “before it is too late”.
“From now on, any attack against Iran’s interests and security will receive a faster, heavier and more painful response,” he said in a speech published on his Telegram channel.
Tehran has shown it retains the capability to attack U.S. interests in neighbouring countries and to shut down oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supplies flowed prior to the conflict. However, the U.S. campaign to throttle Iran’s economy by blockading its oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion is growing increasingly difficult to withstand, three senior Iranian sources have said. In his speech on Sunday, Qalibaf added that alongside the military front, Iran’s main battle was now over production and people’s livelihoods.
He cited sharp currency fluctuations, inflation, unemployment and market management as major challenges, adding Iranians could tolerate hardship but not mismanagement or inaction and expected the government to act quickly.
Iran’s Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said that Tehran planned to respond to U.S. economic pressure with reforms and rejected the notion that sanctions would cause it to change course.
