Economic block? Iran accuses US of threatening to kill Iranians to hunger

O They accused the United States of America (USA) today of threatening to starve the Iranian people by means of economic blockade, after Washington said that, in the end, the Iranians “have to eat”.

“The U.S. Secretary of State openly and shamelessly threatened to starve the Iranians through a blockade. It is a new admission that Washington is committing war crimes”, criticised the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Bagaei, on social network X.

On Tuesday, following a meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers (USA, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada) in Paris, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that sanctions and naval blockade are seriously affecting the Iranian economy and ensured that no further military attacks are needed for the time being.

“ The suffering you're going through is that you have to eat after all. After all, they must be able to pay their own fighters and their security forces,” Rubio said.

To the Iranian spokesman, these statements show that, “after decades of pressure, threats, sanctions, terrorism and unsuccessful aggression, the United States continues to repeat the same mistakes and merely introduce them under new names”.

After the start of the US and Israel's war against Tehran more than eight months ago, the US took a number of measures to pressure the Islamic Republic, including the naval blockade, which began in April and resumed in July, the worsening of sanctions, including those imposed on Iranian airlines, including the operation 'Iron Gate', announced in November to restrict the transport of goods subject to sanctions by land routes and the Caspian Sea.

The Iranian President, Masud Pezeshkian, warned in October that many Iranians have difficulty getting “the daily bread” due to the war and the uncertainty that the country is going through.

The indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States, with the mediation of Qatar and Pakistan, are at a standstill and Tehran has responded to US pressure with attacks on ships and restrictions on maritime traffic in the Strait of Ormuz, which is key to world oil trade.