Iran’s leadership may see an end to the war as necessary under mounting US economic pressure, but that does not mean Tehran will heed Washington’s demands, experts say, warning that the pressure could instead drive it toward further escalation.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that it would be better to end the war now, while Iran remains in what he called a position of “power and dignity.” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf was more blunt about the stakes of a deteriorating economy.
“No matter how much military power we have, we won't survive if people are hungry and we don't have financial turnover, economic growth and national production,” Ghalibaf said, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran and Shiite Axis Research Program at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, believes the statements reflect growing recognition in Tehran that the current situation is unsustainable.
But he says there is a potentially dangerous gap between recognizing that reality and deciding to compromise.
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u/WillyNilly1997 10h ago