Iran is a powerful country. Do not believe anyone who says otherwise. The Iranian economy has been developing steadily despite Western sanctions.
Nevertheless, the US and its "unrecognized" state of Israel continue their crusade against Iran, although neither side profits from the conflict.
The United States and Iran have been struggling for more than 40 years, after the pro-American Shah was overthrown in Iran as a result of the "Islamic revolution". The Americans could not do anything about the ayatollahs who came to power afterwards.
Israeli intelligence services were more successful in their efforts to suppress Iran's nuclear research. They managed to eliminate a number of prominent Iranian scientists. Still, Iran remains a thorn in Washington's side.
The Western press has long reproached all American presidents for their inflexibility and stubbornness. The Americans have been blaming Tehran of all mortal sins for many years. Traditionally, they shift the blame and do their best to hold Iran accountable for a plethora of problems that Washington is dealing with now. In a nutshell, they lie. It goes about such issues as the Middle East settlement, the creation of nuclear weapons, the support for terrorism — everything that the US has been famous for over the past half century.
In general, over the past half century, many have been talking about the biggest problem that American politicians suffer from — the lack of brain matter. They do not seem to understand that there are many things that they can not do when they are not home.
American wrestlers could freely come to Tehran for competitions, whereas Iranian wrestlers, when traveling to the United States, had to be spend hours at the airport of Chicago to have their fingerprints taken, as if they were terrorist suspects.
The Iranian economy is largely dependent on oil exports. Interestingly, Iran is an exporter of black caviar from the Caspian Sea. Iranian caviar is arguably the best on the planet thanks to the unique conditions of the southern Caspian Sea.
Iran is one of the richest countries in Asia. It ranks 18th in the world in terms of national production (according to the CIA). Iran is also the largest country among the states of Western Asia, the Middle East and OPEC. Iran is the second largest economy in the Islamic world after Turkey in terms of GDP.
All despite Western sanctions.
Henry Kissinger once noted that Iran and the US had many common strategic interests. He probably had the pro-US shah regime in mind.
Today's Iran is not a Shah state. This is an Islamic, strong and confident country. To spite Washington, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, despite all the attempts of the West to flirt with Iran, once claimed that the United States was the great oppressor of the world. According to Khamenei, all contacts with the US are harmful and useless. He also noted that any negotiations with Washington were even worse than any efforts to build a relationship.
The recent attempts that the US and NATO have made to suppress the whole world make one think about the words that the Iranian leader then said. Maybe he was right.