Hawzah News Agency – Tehran's interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami has declared that the economic blockade imposed against Iran will ultimately end in defeat for its architects, drawing parallels between Washington's sanctions campaign and the failed economic warfare waged against the Prophet Muhammad's early Muslim community.
"The economic pressure and economic blockade are being pursued with the aim of creating distance between the people and the Islamic establishment while weakening the front of truth," Ayatollah Khatami said during Friday prayer sermons in Tehran. "But the experience of early Islam has shown that such policies will ultimately lead to the failure of the enemies."
The senior cleric dismissed the notion that economic warfare represents a novel strategy introduced by the Trump administration, noting that such tactics date back to the dawn of Islam.
"This issue has precedent from the beginning of Islam," Ayatollah Khatami said, citing Quranic verses that describe how opponents of the faith spent fortunes fighting against it, only to be ultimately overcome with regret upon realizing their efforts had yielded nothing.
He referenced Surah Al-Munafiqun, in which hypocrites urged others not to support the believers around the Prophet so they would disperse. "This is precisely the same economic blockade that America is pursuing with the same objectives," Ayatollah Khatami stated. "But it must not be forgotten that just as the enemies of early Islam were defeated, these enemies will certainly be defeated as well."
Two Key Weapons Against Economic Warfare
The Friday prayer leader outlined what he described as two crucial elements deployed by the Prophet Muhammad to overcome economic pressure — principles he said remain essential today.
The first, he explained, is the element of economic jihad — struggle through wealth. "Jihad means effort; effort that contains hardship," Ayatollah Khatami said. "This jihad sometimes manifests in the military arena, sometimes in the economic arena under the banner of the resistance economy, and sometimes in the arena of clarification under the banner of explanatory jihad."
The second principle, which he elaborated on later in his sermon, involves steadfastness and unity between the people and leadership.
'Hybrid War' Against Iran
Ayatollah Khatami characterized the current confrontation as a "hybrid war" encompassing military, economic, media, and cultural dimensions.
"Today's war is precisely a hybrid war," he declared. "There is military war — a war that remains cowardly and villainous. War has its own rules, but this Trump does not abide by rules."
He condemned recent attacks, asking: "What crime had 168 schoolchildren committed? In all the laws of the world, children are immune, but the enemies turn people's weddings into funerals. It has been proven to everyone that this is a cowardly war."
The cleric praised Iran's armed forces for responding to these attacks with what he called "the highest and most chivalrous form" of retaliation.
"The enemy launches one attack and receives multiple responses," Ayatollah Khatami said. "We are proud of these armed forces."
Call for National Unity
Addressing what he described as the economic dimension of the ongoing conflict, Ayatollah Khatami urged both officials and citizens to follow the Prophet's example in confronting hardship.
"To you, the nation that filled the streets for approximately 190 nights over more than six months, I say: your assistance to the Islamic establishment in this arena is essential," he said. "The officials of the Islamic establishment must work with jihadi diligence to resolve or reduce economic problems. This nation deserves that its officials work in this manner."
He added that the people must also contribute whatever they can to support the Islamic establishment, emphasizing that the combination of official effort and popular resilience would replicate the successful formula demonstrated during the Prophet's era.
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