Iran parliament speaker says US blockade aims at ‘internal division’

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says the United States’ naval blockade of Iran aims to create division and “make us collapse from within”.

US President Donald Trump “divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord,” state TV quoted him as saying.

Ghalibaf, a powerful figure, has grown in prominence since the start of the US-Israel war and was the lead negotiator in the only round of direct US-Iranian talks held in Pakistan.

“The enemy has entered a new phase and wants to activate economic pressure and internal division through naval blockade and media hype to weaken or even make us collapse from within,” he said.

Ghalibaf called for “maintaining unity” as the only solution.

The US has blockaded Iranian ports in retaliation for Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas.