Rezaei calls for introducing a “Jihadistic resisting economy” to counter sanctions

“We need a principlist team who believes in the (Islamic) revolution and its values,” Rezaei stressed.

Rezaei who was a candidate in the presidential elections of 2009 said “Whoever claims that he can leave behind the sanctions once he becomes president, he is making a drastic mistake. And if he understands what he is saying, then he is an incredible fraudulent.”

In regards to the new round of the UN and West’s economic sanctions against the country, he suggested to apply “a Jihadistic resisting economy” in order to leave behind the sanctions and turning them into a historical opportunity for the Islamic Republic.

Rezaei who was chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) at the time of the Iraqi imposed war of 1980-88, noted that Iran has faced four rounds of sanctions since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He recalled that the Iranian assets of 12 billion dollars in the US were blocked by the Carter administration and even the military equipments that had been purchased and fully paid before the Islamic Revolution, including F-16 jet fighters and destroyers, were never delivered to Iran.

Also, he added, during the Iraq-Iran war, the second round of sanctions were imposed by the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada. But Iran could supply parts of its weapons and ammunition needs through Syria, North Korea, Libya, and partly through China. Moreover, the country managed to supply foodstuff and fuel through varied means and therefore all military and non-military needs of the country were provided, he said.

Rezaei voiced the conviction that Iran’s current achievements in production of military equipments were made possible due to the self-confidence of the nation that was initiated during the war. “In the last years of the war, we were able to manufacture many of our military needs,” he said.

“But I believe the country’s performance in the economic domain was not satisfactory,” he said adding that “Contrary to the progress we achieved in the military sector, such a growth was not registered in the non-military sector. Most of efforts behind the frontlines were made to establish a system of fair distribution of consuming commodities. Even not much attention was paid to the fair distribution of opportunities and production. The efforts sufficed to the fair distribution of oil incomes and consumption. Thus, the economic administrators of the Holy Defense era were not able to employ the abundant incentives in the economic fields that had been emerged in the people after the revolution.

Rezaei further criticized the country’s economic managers and authorities of the war time saying that “They did not believe in the market, private sector or in generating wealth, but rather considered them as counter values.” Moreover, he said, “They did not have any experience (in running the country’s economy).”

Rezaei who received his PhD in economics after the end of the war, believes that “Iran needs a Jihadistic resisting economy if it wants to have a say in the region and turn into an influential hub.”

Referring to the third round of economic sanctions against Iran, Rezaei noted that they were also imposed by the US with the objective to contain foreign investments in Iran and that lasted about 15 years till 2005. Those sanctions, ratified by Bill Clinton’s administration, were not as effective as previous ones and were easily overlooked by many foreign companies.

However, he continued, today Iran is faced with the fourth round of sanctions that are also implemented by China and Russia for the first time. He noted that these sanctions are ratified by the UN and additional unilateral sanctions have been imposed by individual countries, thus they are more expanded and harsher than previous ones.

Presently, Rezaei said, the focal point of the West’s confrontation with Iran is an economic war through economic sanctions while it employs other apparatuses such as diplomacy or military operations to support the sanctions.

Rezaei said since many years ago he expected the emergence of an economic and cultural crisis in Iran. Now an imposed economic war has begun that would last at least 5 to 10 years. But, he said, in the same way that “we wrapped up a 20-year war in eight years, we will be able to end the US 10-year sanctions in few years.” However, our success in this regard depends on the executive management of the country and whether it would be able to utilize the national capacity to counter the sanctions in the best possible way.”

Reiterating that the Americans are determined to impose an economic war on Iran, he proposed to launch a holy economic Jihad against it. He called on the executive authorities not to repeat the same mistakes of the past administrations when the role of the people diminished and that of the government gained color due to their erroneous view on economy. He called on the parliament to ratify required laws and on the government to execute them in order to defeat the Americans in this war too. Resistance economy can be turned into a manifest and a charter for an exit from the state economy and for mobilizing the private and cooperative sector.

In conclusion, Rezaei called for an all-out cooperation with the government in the present situation when the country is faced with extensive sanctions and threats. “In my literature, there is no excuse to stop helping the government under the pretext of having views and tastes different than those of the government. For me, the most important thing at the time of hardships is to stand next to the ruling government and help as much as I can. When the country is faced with sanctions and threats, the issue is not about Hashemi (Rafsanjani) and (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and (Mohammad) Khatami and Rezaei. The issue is about the Iranian nation and the sacred Islamic Republic system.”

END