By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The President-Elect in his first press conference that was televised nationwide on Monday and included reporters of the foreign media excellently fielded all questions thrown at him on various topics, including internal and international issues.
He deftly placed back on the reporter’s own desk the complicated questions posed rather willfully by the foreign media – perhaps in an attempt to catch him on the wrong foot – and in the process displayed sincerity and honesty in tackling the problems facing Iran and the Iranian people.
There were no boastful remarks by Ayatollah Ibrahim Raisi in his press conference or ambiguous words and phrases that politicians normally use as empty promises to deceive the masses – although independent journalists remain unconvinced.
For instance he said: “The foreign policy of our administration will not start from the JCPOA nor will it be restricted to the JCPOA”,
This was a reference to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action on Iran’s inalienable right to peaceful develop nuclear energy, on which the US criminally renegaded, and despite the change of guard at the White House in Washington, continues its policy of economic terrorism with the intention of frustrating the Iranian government through meaningless talks.
Raisi added: “We will not tie the economic situation and people’s [livelihood] to these negotiations and we will not allow talks for the sake of talks.”
Commendable words indeed that show the resolve of the new president to give preference to the development of domestic economy, which without reason or rhyme has been tied to the astronomical rise of the exchange rates of foreign currencies.
Hopefully, the new administration will diligently adhere to the emphasis of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on the ‘Economy of Resistance” that focuses inwards on the nation’s capabilities, including God-given resources, rather than vain expectations that the enemies would lift sanctions and inflow of foreign investments.
As Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has time and again stressed, Iran which has skilled manpower in manufacturing a wide variety of heavy industrial data-x-items needed in the nuclear, oil, petrochemical, aerospace, defence, cyber, automobile, medical, pharmaceutical, and other fields, is also blessed with abundant natural resources that could be excellently tapped for the benefit of the people – who certainly do not deserve the current calamitous conditions on the pretext of American sanctions and reduction of hard currency reserves.
It means, US dollars are not required to make the grass grow in Iran, the trees to bear fruits, the flowers to blossom, and the vegetables to ripen.
In the same vein, our cattle and sheep do not graze on euros or ponds, neither the poultry insists on imported feed, nor the fishes flourish on Japanese yens, or for that matter the paddies and wheat fields need the good wishes of the Americans and the European to make the prices of rice and breads affordable for the common man.
Isn’t it an unpardonable crime to bury alive millions of newly hatched chicks by avaricious entrepreneurs who have virtually removed chicken from the table of the Iranian people?
These are the basic needs of the people and the reason their purchasing power of the staple diets has been drastically reduced, resulting in economic woes, is gross mismanagement and the unacceptable link to JCPOA.
The incoming president, as he promised during his election campaign to remove poverty, corruption, inflation, unchecked smuggling, and wastage of precious foreign currency reserves on unnecessary import of data-x-items that could well be produced at home in better quality, should first and foremost resolve these vexing issues.
Then only the Islamic Republic will be able to compete in the international markets and thwart the Zionist/American bid to destabilize our neighbourhood, thereby giving the western powers no other choice but to remove their criminal sanctions for a share of the Iranian economic pie.