Iran will emerge stronger from US economic warfare: Scholar

Contrary to the effects intended to be imposed by US sanctions, Iran will actually emerge stronger than it would have without that challenge, according to an American author, journalist and radio host.

Kevin Barrett made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on a statement of Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who said that the US and Israel have reached the point where they understand that their so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran has run up against the dead end, and he's hopeful that this recognition will turn into a change in policy.

Speaking in a meeting of senior officials of Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, Zarif said, “Perhaps, no other country has been under such mounting pressure from certain [world] powers, especially the United States, and the Zionist regime.”

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“But, this comes at a moment when Iran's military has talked about its underground cities overlooking the Persian Gulf in mountains that are quite impregnable. And this has been widely recognized by American strategists when they war-gamed imagining having a war with Iran; they lose in large part because Iran has that strategic ground and controls the Persian Gulf,” Barrett said.

“So that's why the US has been waging all-out economic warfare, perhaps the most brutal economic war ever waged, escalating pressure against Iran with mixed success. The rest of the world was not impressed by the US administration's jettisoning of the JCPOA, which was really an act of complete international criminality. And so, the rest of the world has been sympathetic with Tehran's position as the US, and its master in Tel Aviv, have gotten more and more hysterical,” he added.  

“And now we've heard that the Israelis are sort of half-heartedly, or ambivalently, claiming credit for bombing an installation in Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program and crowing about it; while Iran is, as usual, behaving responsibly, and any retaliation which will be completely legitimate when it comes will be done responsibly, proportionately, and on Iran's terms,” he stated.  

“So, ultimately what we are facing is a situation in which, Israel—which greatly increased its power over the US after it was the key player in the September 11, 2001, coup d'etat featuring the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center—has realized that its whole plan, which was to radically reshape the region to its own benefit by taking out seven countries in five years, the seventh and most important being Iran, has run up into a dead end. They can't stop Iran. They can't get rid of the Islamic Republic. They can't get their regime change, and they can't even completely destroy Iran's economy, because the resistance economy has continued to function under atrocious conditions,” he stated.

“So, Foreign Minister Zarif seems to think that at some point in the not too distant future, the Israelis will lose their project. This is an Israeli project after all. The only reason that the US is hostile to Iran is because Israel sees Iran as a threat. Why is that? Because Iran tells the truth about the genocide of Palestine and supports the Palestinian resistance to that genocide,” he noted.

“And so Israel has captured the United States and dragged the US into hostilities with Iran. At some point, the world is going to say no to this, as US power wanes around the world. It seems that a change is going to come. And whether it comes perhaps after the next US elections (there may be a new administration in office) or perhaps it'll be another way that the US will break with Israeli anti-Iran policy,” he said.  

“But it seems that Iran has largely weathered the storm, and will come out of this stronger than ever thanks to its resistance economy. (Despite) what it has put up with in order to become a fully independent country, when it emerges from this economic war, it will be even stronger than it would have been had it not had such a difficult challenge, and had it simply knuckled under to the Zio-American Empire as other regional countries have,” he concluded.

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