Tehran: Failure of 1.5 Years of US’ Pressures Proving Iran’s Power

“The great Iranian nation’s power has become clearer and its position higher after 1.5 years of constant economic pressures,” President Rouhani said today, adding that despite the pressures on the people, today, is the day of dignity for the Iranian nation.

“History has repeated itself 41 years after the Revolution. Everybody has put us under pressure and the United States is imposing the toughest economic pressures on us, not letting foreign companies to work with us,” he added, referring to Washington’s support for the last king of Iran in 1979.

“They thought that these pressures would give them the results they wanted, but today, we feel that it is the contrary,” he said.

“In my visit to New York, it was crystal clear that today is the day of the Iranian nation’s dignity,” the Iranian president continued, adding that the feeling of dignity was completely clear in the recent visit to Armenia as well.

“In the visit to the United Nations headquarters, politics and diplomacy were revolving around where the Iranian delegation was, and everybody wanted to hear about regional dynamics and global politics from Iran,” he added.

“They all felt that Iran’s actions can even affect the United States’ domestic politics as well,” said the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“The anti-Iranian lobby had set a plot to tell the people around the world that Iran has begun a tension in the critical Persian Gulf region,” Rouhani added.

“It was necessary for us to foil this plot and tell people around the world that those who have created these problems in the region are the same people who have been savagely bombarding the innocent people of Yemen,” he underlined.

“What we felt during our short stay in New York was that the negative atmosphere against Iran was destroyed; especially because of the fact that we advocated peace and proposed Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) initiative,” said the President.

 “They wanted to convince the public opinions that everything is ready for a peaceful diplomacy and it is Iran that is being stubborn,” he noted.

“In my 70-hour visit to New York, we had 15 meetings with world leaders, and we could shatter the conspiracy that the enemies had planned against Iran,” he said.

“Something important happened as well; the P5+1, which was dead to the anti-Iranians, Israel, regional reactionaries and the White House, was something that everybody was working to form again,” Rouhani underscored.

“The P5+1 was based on an agreement and if they want to work within its framework, it is fine to us. P4+1 convened in New York, and it could be P5+1,” he said.

“Of course, France had prepared a plan that could be acceptable, because it was basically based on the demand that Iran must not seek nuclear weapons, which we had already said it wasn’t, and the US must abandon all its sanctions,” the President also said.

He said, “As I have said before as the Iranian nation’s representative, I am ready for any kind of self-sacrifice that leads to protecting the Iranian nation’s rights”.

“These were the principles that the French had run by the Americans and then by us. What happened in New York, despite what others may think that was the settlement point, was far from settlement. Such an important matter cannot be settled within a few hours without considering all its aspects,” he stressed.

Rouhani added, “Of course, it was important for the Americans to make a news bomb out of it with the aim of changing the domestic conditions to their own benefit.”

Stating that the road is not closed, he said, “Whenever the Iranian nation’s rights and respect are observed, the path is clear”.

Whatever we have is because of the Iranian nation’s resistance, said the president, adding, “If the Iranian nation hadn’t resisted, nobody would have come to meet with us in New York. If our armed forces hadn’t shoot down the drone that violated Iran’s airspace, we wouldn’t have the current position.”

“We warned, gave some time and then we took action; in defense, the wait time is a matter of seconds, but in diplomacy, it can take 2 months. We give two months and then we take action. But, what we saw here was that everybody understood that the Iranian nation will not be defeated”.

Rouhani continued by saying, “We agreed to the general framework that Europe sought and insisted on, with modifications to those terms,” adding, “We have always sought security in the region and never sought nuclear weapons. They must lift sanctions and allow Iran’s commercial activities to happen freely”.

The President emphasized that perhaps because some have made other inferences, I would like to thank the French President for making every effort within that 48-hour time, especially for 24 hours, to make it happen, saying, “We cooperated, but the party that obstructed it was the White House; Iran, Paris, Tokyo and the rest of the countries were not to blame”.

Noting that the US was telling Europeans in a private message that it was ready, but later announcing in interviews that it was going to tighten sanctions, Rouhani emphasized, “How can you believe that?”

“I think the road is clear, and the whole world has come to the conclusion that America’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was wrong, and the US will not succeed,” the president underscored.

“Everyone came to the conclusion that the JCPOA was the best deal of the time,” Rouhani pointed out.

On Tuesday, Commander of the Iranian Army Major General Seyed Abdolrahim Mousavi stressed that his country’s active and smart resistance has defused all US pressures and sanctions.

“The Americans used all their power to impose the discourse of concession on the Islamic Republic of Iran but despite abundant pressures, the Islamic Republic could stand against the enemy and push it back by using the discourse of resistance,” General Mousavi said, addressing the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders in Tehran.

In relevant remarks last month, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani had also asserted that Tehran’s active resistance policy genuflected the US policy of maximum pressure, adding that Washington held false assumptions to make the national economy of the Islamic Republic collapse.

The US policy of maximizing pressure followed by false assumptions to collapse Iran’s national economy was genuflected in the face of strategy of active resistance, Shamkhani said, in a meeting with a numbers of parliamentarians and presiding board of the “Faction against the Sanctions” of the parliament.

He pointed to the intense psychological war that was designed and implemented by the mainstream media to support the US maximum pressure policy against Iran.

The resilient Iranian people, despite the heavy economic pressures, because of their awareness, insight and insistence, and intelligence were not defeated in this war and disappointed the enemy in achieving its goals, the high-ranking official went on to say.

Shamkhani welcomed the initiative of the “Faction against the Sanctions” to create a club of sanctioned countries and active involvement in the fight against the US economic terrorism, pointing out that resistance will lead to success when it comes to a continuous approach and activity and it can be considered as an effective step in the path of continuing an active resistance strategy.

He referred to the issue of countering sanctions as one of the main pillars of unity among the various political factions in the country, and said that the enemy has realized, in the light of past experience, that the Islamic Republic in the face of threats has reached out to considerable maturity and potential and therefore is trying to minimize the focus of the nation’s forces on countering the threats by creating social, political and security crises and problems.

On September 15, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said, “The Americans have opted for a policy named maximum pressure (against Iran), but it has apparently tilted towards maximum lies for their failures.”