RoydadNaft –  The spokesman for the Presiding Board of Iran’s parliament said Tehran will not stand idle in the face of economic pressure, called any cooperation with what he described as America’s oppressive sanctions a red line, and warned that the Islamic Republic will use strategic tools such as control of the Strait of Hormuz to defeat Washington’s efforts to offset military setbacks through economic means.

According to Roydad Naft, Abbas Goudarzi pointed to what he called illegal and inhumane U.S. economic sanctions against Iran and said the conflict is a single war with both military and economic dimensions. Just as resistance, defense, and effective response occupy a central place in the Islamic Republic’s military strategy, he said, the same applies in the economic arena. “Just as we will not allow the enemy to prevail on the battlefield, we will not remain passive in the face of economic turmoil,” he said.

Goudarzi added that Iran’s national interests are not separate from those of other countries. Regional interests, he said, are now intertwined, so that any blow to Iran’s economy will necessarily affect the economies of other countries in the region. “If Iran’s oil is not sold, no country’s oil in the region will be sold,” he said.

The Islamic Republic seeks engagement, brotherhood, and peace, he said, but any violation of Iran’s national interests is a red line. Anyone who joins Washington in the “oppressive” U.S. sanctions will face effective and costly Iranian responses, he warned.

Referring to Iran’s strategic capacity to counter the sanctions, Goudarzi said the Islamic Republic is working both to lift the sanctions and to neutralize them. Part of that effort, he said, involves management of the Strait of Hormuz, which he described as under Iran’s control and sovereignty. Iran, he argued, is the country that has suffered losses in this domain and whose capacities have been exploited.

The lawmaker, a member of parliament’s Social Commission and a representative in the 12th Majlis, said Iran cannot remain indifferent while the nation’s economy, people’s livelihoods, patients’ medicine, and daily bread are held hostage by its enemies, and that it will use every available capacity to make those adversaries regret their actions.

The world today rejects American unilateralism and no longer follows Washington, Goudarzi said. Recent U.S. moves, he added, are only the desperate struggles of a country that has lost its global standing. The United States, having failed in the military and defense arenas, is now trying to continue the war on other fronts, he said, but with the support of nations and the awareness of other countries, it will fail there as well.