On November 10, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that the US will not be able to bring Iran’s oil export to zero. Rouhani said the “wrong sanctions” targeted the Iranian people who had “a firm stand” against them.
“Because when you apply sanctions on banks you target medicine and other medical needs,” Rouhani said during a meeting with Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq larijani.
Separately, the Iranian President claimed that the US sanctions have no impact on the Iranian economy.
“The sanctions have had no impact on our economy because America had already used all the weapons at its disposal and there was nothing new to use against us,” Rouhani said in remarks carried live on state television. He added that Iran would “proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions”.
Washington imposed a large-scale wave of anti-Iranian sanctions on November 5 targeting the Islamic Republic’s energy and financial sectors along with its shipping industry.
However, the US announced that China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey had received waivers that would allow them to continue “temporary” imports of Iranian oil without facing penalties. Additionally, the US granted Iraq a waiver to import natural gas and energy supplies from Iran for a period of 45 days.
The top importers of Iran’s oil are China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, the UAE, Japan and Taiwan.
Previously, top officials of the Trump administration repeatedly vowed that the new sanctions, including the oil exports ban, will crush the Iranian economy. However, this stance was confronted by Iranian authorities, which say that Teheran will be able to deter the US effort.
