Iran braces itself for harder sanctions
TEHRAN 12 May (ANA) - President Hassan Rouhani has called for unity among Iran's political factions to overcome conditions which he says may be harder than those during the 1980s war with Iraq.
As Iran faces tightening US sanctions, Rouhani said his country was under unprecedented pressure comparable to when Saddam Hussein's army invaded Iran in 1980, which prompted eight years of intense fighting and economic problems.
"Today, it cannot be said whether conditions are better or worse than the (1980-88) war period, but during the war we did not have a problem with our banks, oil sales or imports and exports, and there were only sanctions on arms purchases," Iran's state news agency IRNA cited Rouhani as saying.
"The pressures by enemies is a war unprecedented in the history of our Islamic revolution... but I do not despair and have great hope for the future and believe that we can move past these difficult conditions provided that we are united," Rouhani said.
Hardliners have criticised Rouhani after US President Donald Trump withdrew from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Rouhani supported, and reimposed sanctions last year.
The Iranian president has also been abandoned by some of his moderate allies.
Separately, a media court in Iran on Saturday suspended the weekly Seda (Voice), the semi-official news agency ISNA reported, after the reformist magazine published an issue that included articles warning about the possibility of war with the US.
"At the Crossroads of War and Peace, have moderates lost or will they again save Iran from war?" the main headline on the front page read against a photograph of US Navy warships.(ANA)
FA/ANA/12 May 2019-----