TEHRAN -- A senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander said on Sunday that economic pressure and internal divisions cannot weaken the will of the Iranian people. 
“The enemy should not count on the impact of economic pressure on the will of the Iranian nation,” Brigadier General Muhammad Reza Naghdi, senior adviser to the IRGC commander-in-chief, said in Birjand.
Naghdi said the people’s deep beliefs are the most important factor in foiling enemy conspiracies.
He cited 47 years of hostile measures against the Islamic Republic, including assassinations, sedition, riots, border unrest and imposed war, saying the enemies failed to bring the revolution to its knees. 
He said that after failing in various methods, the enemy turned to direct confrontation, but the people and armed forces repelled the attacks.
He attributed this resilience to religious faith and belief in divine promises.
Referring to the U.S. military experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, Naghdi said military power alone cannot break the will of nations, adding invading forces were forced to withdraw after years of conflict and heavy costs. 
He said when the enemy faces a people ready to sacrifice for their country and ideals, its calculations for ground incursion face serious difficulty.
Naghdi said the enemy knows any attack on Iran will be met with a response, complicating its calculations for repeating military action. He said one of the enemy’s hopes is to exhaust the people and intensify economic problems to create conditions for unrest, but stressed that currency fluctuations and rising inflation cannot drive Iranians from the field.
“The enemy should not imagine that currency fluctuations and rising inflation can remove the Iranian people from the scene,” he said, adding that the nation’s faith and beliefs are too deep to be destroyed by economic pressure.
Naghdi called national unity the factor that neutralizes enemy conspiracies. He recounted stories of public support during
 the Iraqi war of the 1980s on Iran, including an elderly widow who donated her largest sheep to the front despite owning only a few, and a woman who donated family gold for the war effort despite needing money to repair her home.
He emphasized the need to preserve national unity, saying the enemy continues to seek divisions in society but the Iranian people will not allow economic pressure and political conspiracies to split their united ranks. He cited the role of leadership in guiding the country under difficult conditions.