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The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's target economic growth of 8 percent is bound to some requirements, including foreign investments, says Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the new parliament in Tehran, Rouhani said each year Iran will need $30 billion to $50 billion of foreign investment in order to reach that economic growth, IRIB news agency reported May 28.

"That amount of investment is needed since we have already used all the resources that we can find inside the country," Rouhani underlined.

He went on to tacitly defend the nuclear deal as a preliminary step to luring foreign investments.

Rouhani's emphasize on foreign investment comes at a time when he is under criticism by rivals for disregarding the supreme leader's guidelines about what they call a "resistance economy", something much similar to austerity measures.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed that the government needs to adhere to the resistance economy policies, which require minimum reliance on foreigners.

Iranian conservatives frequently underline the unreliability of Western countries, demonstrated in numerous turns throughout the history of the Islamic Republic.

The policies of the resistance economy are meant to be a security-minded set of rules to reduce the country's reliance on world powers.

The supreme leader's recent message to the incoming parliament, read out during the same ceremony, emphasized the "resistant economy" as a top priority to be observed by the parliamentarians.

Khamenei called on the new Iranian MPs to make the parliament a "solid fortification" against the excessive demands of the "arrogant powers".

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