{"id":222503,"date":"2026-08-30T05:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-leaders-acknowledge-economic-toll-of-war-pledge-diplomacy-defence-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T05:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:43:08","slug":"irans-leaders-acknowledge-economic-toll-of-war-pledge-diplomacy-defence-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-leaders-acknowledge-economic-toll-of-war-pledge-diplomacy-defence-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s leaders acknowledge economic toll of war, pledge diplomacy, defence – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s president said sanctions and the US naval blockade had caused exports and imports to slump by nearly 35 percent.<\/em>
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Iran\u2019s leaders have acknowledged the mounting economic damage of six months of war with the United States<\/a>, with the president saying foreign trade has shrunk by more than a third under US sanctions and a naval blockade.
The admissions came on Saturday as Tehran signalled it would not back down, pledging to withstand US pressure<\/a>, pursue diplomacy and maintain what it says is control over the Strait of Hormuz.
The government said addressing the economic fallout was now a central focus, including curbing inflation, creating jobs and gradually reducing dependence on the dollar.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that exports and imports had slumped nearly 35 percent because of sanctions and the blockade of Iranian ports<\/a>.
He said Iran had nonetheless managed to sell about 90 million barrels of oil during the short-lived Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Washington in June, when oil sales were briefly permitted.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28 with an attack that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the government to tackle the hardship.
\u201cThere is the need to seriously address the chain of economic and livelihood challenges, \u2060such as inflation, unemployment, management of prices and the market for goods and services,\u201d read a written statement attributed to Khamenei.
Annual inflation hit 66 percent last month, and residents in Tehran told Al Jazeera the war had upended daily life.
\u201cBefore the war, I didn\u2019t work. Since the war, I\u2019ve had to find a job to help support my household,\u201d said Maryam. \u201cEverything has become so expensive.\u201d
Omid, who runs a food business, said trade had dried up as rents rose: \u201cWe can barely afford to pay our workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday, the government described diplomacy and defence as \u201ctwo complementary, coordinated and inseparable wings\u201d for protecting national interests and territorial integrity, saying it would pursue both in a balanced manner.
Al Jazeera\u2019s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Tehran, said the government was promoting a message of unity.
Pezeshkian has called for dialogue and a less confrontational relationship with neighbouring countries, saying none of them ruled over the other, while the supreme leader has urged domestic unity and the preservation of social cohesion, she said.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday, stressing the importance of returning to open shipping through the strait. Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the talks as \u201ccreative\u201d.
Iran\u2019s military, meanwhile, struck a defiant note, with army commander-in-chief Amir Hatami telling the Fars news agency that although the \u201cenemy\u201d had tried to destroy Iran\u2019s drone and missile capabilities, its stockpile had been fired \u201cwith the utmost intensity until the last moment\u201d.
On Friday, Acting Defence Minister Majid Ibn Reza said Iran had \u201csurprises\u201d in store: \u201cEveryone, and especially the enemies, should know that they will become aware of Iran\u2019s surprises in due time,\u201d according to the Tasnim News Agency.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s president said sanctions and the US naval blockade had caused exports and imports to slump by nearly 35 percent.SaveShareIran\u2019s leaders have acknowledged the mounting economic damage of six months of war with the United States, with the president saying foreign trade has shrunk by more than a third under US sanctions and a naval […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}