Iranian President Pezeshkian says the country faces its most intense blockade since the 1979 revolution and accuses the US of trying to provoke public protests.
TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that the country was facing its most intense blockade since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, accusing the United States of seeking to provoke public protests.
Iran and the United States have been at war since February 28, when US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Over the 48 years since the Revolution, we have never faced such intense blockade, war and difficulties as we are facing now,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast by state television.
He accused Washington of seeking to make life difficult for Iranians in order to fuel public anger and trigger unrest.
Pezeshkian said the US was focusing its efforts on making “the people become upset and face difficulties, and then for social protests to emerge so that they can achieve their sinister objectives”.
The US imposed a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, diverting or stopping vessels travelling to and from Iranian ports.
Iran has repeatedly accused the US and Israel of fomenting unrest inside the country, and in recent months has executed several Iranians accused of collaborating with its foes.
In late December last year, protests over the cost of living erupted in Iran, spreading nationwide and evolving into a wider anti-government movement.
Iran’s rulers blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.