Sanctions to have no fruits for enemies; US’ calculations about Iran wrong

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): President Hassan Rouhani appeared in a press conference with domestic and international media outlets and spoke about the most important domestic issues, as well as the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding regional and international issues.

At the beginning of the press conference, President appreciated people’s massive attendance in 22 Bahman demonstrations and stated that the Iranian people have displayed exceptional resistance since 2018, adding, "All indices show that the era of the United States’ maximum pressure has passed and sanctions will not have any fruits for the enemies and their calculations about Iran are wrong”.

Referring to the bitter incidents in the past 1 year, President said, "The [Iranian] year we are approaching the end of was a year full of happenings for the great Iranian nation. In the beginning of this year, we faced unprecedented floods in 25 countries”.

“The martyrdom of General Soleimani, which was very hard for our people to take, and their attendance in his funeral proved that people will continue the path he chose,” he continued.

Referring to the Ukrainian plane crash and the death of a number of Iranians in Martyr Soleimani’s funeral, he said, "Our people have displayed exceptional resistance against foreign pressures since 2018”.

“Despite what the ill-wishers wanted, our problems this year are less than last year, and despite the fact that conditions are tougher than last year, all social, security and economic indices show that the United States’ maximum pressure is behind us,” said Rouhani.

The President continued, "There is no doubt that Americans have come to the conclusion today that the path and strategy they had chosen was based on a miscalculation and will not affect the great Iranian nation”.

He added, "Of course, sanctions will naturally create problems for the people and therefore it is possible that they can affect people’s lives, but these sanctions will be fruitless for our enemies”.

“They think that they can force us to the negotiation table by maximum pressure and what the US is seeking by maximum pressure and putting pressure on people is to force the government to the negotiation table but this is impossible,” said Rouhani.

He continued, "We will never go to the negotiation table with weakness, but we will explicitly and powerfully have our say before the world”.

“When you compare the figures with 5-6 or 8 years ago, we see that despite sanctions and pressures, this is the first time in the history of Iran that we are experiencing non-oil economy and we saw that the country is manageable without oil,” he added.

The President continued, "Of course, our progress may have been slower compared to the goals that the 11th and 12th governments had, but when we compare figures in water, energy, gas, power, agriculture, tourism, knowledge companies, industry and mines, services, health, and education, our conditions are relatively acceptable”.

He said, "My message in the short address in the beginning of the press conference is thanking the great people of Iran and stating that we will continue the path with the same power and we will eventually force the enemies to come to the negotiation table like before. In the 2015 negotiations it was them who requested to negotiate”.

“Of course, today they are asking us for negotiation, but they must go back to the fair conditions to make it possible,” said Rouhani.

The President also went on to say, "Therefore, our path is the path of resistance and steadfastness and progress in the coming year”.

He added, "My message is a good next year, and I would like to thank the noble people of Iran for their resistance in tough times and enemy’s pressures”.

Answering a question regarding the Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) initiative, he said, "It is clear for the entire world that peace and stability in this region is impossible without a powerful and great country like Iran”.

“We have always sought security in this region and General Soleimani was one of the commanders who sought stability and security in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East,” he said.

Dr Rouhani continued, "The HOPE initiative was announced at the UN General Assembly and proposed to the Secretary General, all countries and regional states, and I officially sent the initiative to all regional leaders and we called on all of them to participate in it”.

The President said, "Some regional countries welcomed it well and some others have not still given an explicit response to us, but we still believe that it is the regional states that must help establish peace”.

“We stress that all countries must enjoy security and stability in the region,” said the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Answering a question about Trump’s impeachment and his pressures on Iran, he said, "It does not make any difference for us who rules America. What matters to us is our national interests. You know that in the US, there are two groups; a group believed that they could force Iran to take the path they want, and the other group believes that Iran is more powerful than this”.

“They thought that if they put maximum sanctions on Iran, we would not resist more than 3-4 months and we would surrender and force Iran to accept the offers they put on the table,” he said.

He continued, "Today after more than 20 months of maximum pressure, this policy has failed and we have better conditions in the region compared to two years ago and we are more united inside the country”.

Answering a question regarding rumours about President’s resignation, Dr Rouhani said, "Resignation does not mean anything to me. We have made promises to people and we will keep them until the last hour”.

“All people have supported the system and the government so far and want the conditions to improve. If we want better conditions, we must all support the system. In the meantime, if we have a criticism, we should say it with the aim of improving the conditions,” he said.

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