Iranian cleric urges nation to unite against enemy’s ‘economic war’

A senior Iranian cleric has called on the people and authorities of Iran to form a united front against the “economic war” waged on the Islamic republic.

“This is the war in which the enemy, having suffered defeat in other wars, is trying to regain its lost face through victory,” Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said.

He stated that economic problems in Iran have their root in politics, adding that the US seeks to restore its domination of the region by inflicting an economic defeat on Iran.

Ayatollah Jannati further addressed the relentless unrest in Syria and condemned the interference of foreign countries in the Arab state’s internal affairs.

“All enemies have united to finish this country off; and it is not clear why Saudi Arabia and Qatar and, above all, the United States are meddling in the internal affairs of [other] countries,” he said, in reference to the those countries’ military and intelligence support for the armed insurgents fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The problem is not Syria, but the resistance [against Israel] and the enemies’ war revolves around this issue,” he stressed.

On the political crisis in Bahrain, Ayatollah Jannati called attention to the plight of the Bahraini people. They have been met with more than a year of violent crackdown and are exposed to detention and torture in jails, he said.

Dozens of people have been killed since February 2011, in Manama’s Saudi-backed suppression of popular protests demanding the downfall of the ruling Al Khalifa family.