US blockade aims to spark protests: Pezeshkian

TEHRAN, Oct 15: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday that the country was facing its most intense blockade since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, accusing the United States of seeking to provoke public protests.

Iran and the United States have been at war since February 28, when US and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Over the 48 years since the Revolution, we have never faced such intense blockade, war and difficulties as we are facing now," Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast by state television.

He accused Washington of seeking to make life difficult for Iranians in order to fuel public anger and trigger unrest.
Pezeshkian said the US was focusing its efforts on making "the people become upset and face difficulties, and then for social protests to emerge so that they can achieve their sinister objectives".�" AFP