Rooz Online reports: Officials now repeatedly acknowledge: Sanctions are devastating

In an op-ed written by Hossein Mohammad, he states that until only several weeks ago, Iran repeatedly claimed in public that the growing international and bilateral sanctions that have evolved against Iran have had no effect on the country. However, since the EU embargo on Iranian oil and a ban on insuring shipments of Iranian oil went into effect on July 1, Iranian officials have changed their tune in public by confirming the hardship and difficulty caused by the sanctions. Mehdi Ghazanfari, Minister of Industries and Mines, referred to the sanctions as devastating. “The enemy has put its fingers on the main arteries of the country’s economy and is now implementing comprehensive sanctions.”
Mahmoud Bahmani, Governor of Iran’s Central Bank had warned that the sanctions would bring hardship for years and compared it to a period of hardship during the reign of Islam’s prophet Mohammad. The Supreme Leader of Iran, however, was quick to publicly reject the governor’s judgment and categorization. He compared the country to a prosperous period in Islamic history.