Iran Launches Blockade On U.S. Goods
Votes to continue ‘Death to America’ campaign
Iran announced over the weekend that it is beginning to implement a blockade of all U.S. goods into the country following an order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has directed the country’s government to form an “economy of resistance.”
The order comes following a letter sent late last month by Khamenei to President Hassan Rouhani. Khamenei called the United States “hostile and disruptive” and directed leaders to cut off all further negotiations with America.
Iran’s trade and industrial ministry announced the blockade on Sunday in a statement carried by the country’s state-controlled media.
“We will implement the blockade on imports of American goods in a directive,” Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the ministry’s leader, announced in a statement published by PressTV.
Iran is seeking to rely more on domestic production and will start “checking imports of U.S. made goods,” according to the report.
The blockade comes just weeks after the Obama administration began to lift longstanding economic sanctions on Iran as part of the recent nuclear agreement meant to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program.