Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, acknowledged the vulnerability of the Islamic Republic’s economy to external pressures during an official visit to Iraq, warning that the regime cannot survive without economic growth, production, and liquidity.
Speaking on Thursday, August 20, at a meeting with Iranian and Iraqi business representatives in Baghdad, Ghalibaf stated: “No matter how much military power we possess, if the people are hungry and we lack financial turnover, economic growth, and national production, we will not survive.”
Ghalibaf’s remarks come as Washington prepares a major escalation of economic pressure against Tehran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday that the Trump administration is finalizing “the toughest sanctions in history” against the Iranian regime, urging international partners to choose between economic cooperation with the United States and continued trade with Iran.
Ghalibaf, who has recently emerged as a key figure overseeing Tehran’s strategic positioning regarding talks with Washington, denounced the U.S. sanctions as “tyrannical” and called for structured countermeasures.
The parliamentary speaker urged an increase in the use of local currencies, specifically the Iranian rial and the Iraqi dinar, in bilateral trade to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, describing local currency settlement as a way to “strike a blow against the American currency.”
