Iran’s president admits US sanctions impacting economy after previously insisting they’d have no effect

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian admits that US sanctions on his country are hurting its economy, despite just days ago insisting they would achieve nothing.

“Some say sanctions have no effect at all; to those people, I really don’t know what to say,” Pezeshkian tells state TV in an interview.

“We are in a war situation, and we must accept these wartime conditions,” he adds.

On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out plans for the “economic asphyxiation” of Iran, warning of dire consequences for countries that do not join the American campaign. The new measures build on a sanctions regime by the US and allies that has been in place since 2018 when President Donald Trump withdrew from an international deal struck with Tehran on its nuclear program.

Pezeshkian says that Iran’s exports and imports have fallen by 25 to 35 percent in recent months as the US maintains a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The president says the price of petrol should be increased in Iran to account for the fall in trade.