Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned that the country’s economic future should not be tied to developments in other countries, including the November presidential elections in the United States.
“The economic planning for the country should not wait for removal of sanctions or the result of elections in another country,” said Ayatollah Khamenei in video conference remarks addressed to the administrative government on Sunday.
The US has imposed a raft of unilateral and illegal sanctions on Iran since it withdrew from a landmark international deal on Iran's nuclear program in 2018.
However, the sanctions have barely caused a major crisis in Iran as the country has sought to diversify the economy away from oil sales, which are a main target of US sanctions, while relying on domestic manufacturing and agriculture to offset the negative impacts of the bans.
The Leader said that the government should assume that the sanctions would remain in place at least for the next 10 years, although he did not rule out the possibility that Iran might decide to take advantage of “good decisions” adopted by foreign governments in future.
Ayatollah Khamenei addressed the government cabinet in video conference.
Ayatollah Khemenei further recommended the government to adopt policies that would ensure the country’s smooth access to hard currency resources, including forcing businesses to returns proceeds earned from exports and preventing the import of luxury goods.
A post on Leader’s official Twitter account on Sunday further elaborated on the need to stop the flow of luxury goods into Iran at a time of increased economic pressure on the country.
“Last year, half a billion dollars were spent to import a certain luxury US mobile brand. Govt must stop this,” read a part of the tweet.