Iran’s president says enemy wages “psychological warfare”

Tehran, Iran | XINHUA | Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that enemies have waged “a psychological warfare” against the country to downplay its achievements, Tasnim news agency reported.

One of the enemy’s main strategies in harming Iran’s economy, beside sanctions, is to “portray a poor image of the administration’s economic management and downplay the country’s achievements through psychological warfare,” Rouhani said in a meeting of the administration’s Economic Coordination Headquarters on Tuesday.

Through distorting realities, imposing sanctions and obstructing Iran’s economic progress, the enemy seeks to disappoint the people, he was quoted as saying.

The Iranian president, however, defended his administration’s performance despite the U.S. sanctions, which he called an economic war against the Islamic republic, saying that the administration has been able to reduce its reliance on oil incomes and continue the process of non-oil exports.

Iran has been under U.S. economic and financial sanctions for nearly two years after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the Iranian multilateral nuclear deal in May 2018.

Washington has called for talks on new deal for further limits on Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile activities, but Tehran has dismissed the calls and insisted on maintenance of its “civilian” nuclear program and “deterrent” ballistic missile development.

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