Top lawmaker warns Iran cannot survive on military power alone

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that military strength alone could not ensure the Islamic Republic’s survival if people faced hunger and the economy failed to grow.

“No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don't have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,” Ghalibaf said during a meeting with Iranian and Iraqi business figures at Iran’s embassy in Baghdad on August 20.

Ghalibaf noted that economic stability and security were inseparable, warning that military security could not be sustained without a functioning economy.

“Security and the economy require each other,” he said. “If we establish security but do not sustain it through the economy, it will not last.”

In the same remarks, Ghalibaf said Iran was neither seeking nor advocating war, but argued that the country needed to maintain military readiness for diplomacy to be effective.

By Vafa Guliyeva