Israel-Iran war LIVE: Jaishankar holds talks with Iran’s Foreign Minister on West Asia situation
Iran parliament speaker says U.S. blockade aims at ‘internal division’
Iran’s speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has emerged as a figurehead since the start of the Middle East war, said on Wednesday (April 29) the United States’ naval blockade of the country aimed to create division and “make us collapse from within”.
He said U.S. President Donald Trump “divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord,” state TV reported.
With the killing of numerous Iranian leaders by U.S.-Israeli strikes, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, there has been widespread speculation over the balance of power within the Islamic republic.
Mr. Trump said earlier this month that the government of Iran was “seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so”.
Mr. Ghalibaf, a powerful figure, has grown in prominence since the start of the war and was the lead negotiator in the so far only round of direct US-Iranian talks.
-AFP
