President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the United States will not succeed in cutting Iran’s economic ties with the region and the world as well as its exports, including oil.
“America had stated that it would prevent Iran from exporting oil and trading with other countries and that it would isolate Iran in the region and the world,” the president said in a speech during a trip to the northern Iranian city of Shahroud in Semnan Province, his official website reported.
“However, the great Iranian nation has proved and will prove that it will be the ultimate winner of this confrontation,” he added.
Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal in May and reimposed sanctions on OPEC’s third biggest crude producer to curb its missile program and regional influence.
Washington had been pushing governments to cut imports of Iranian oil to zero. But, fearing a price spike, it granted Iran’s biggest buyers—China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey—temporary sanctions waivers.
Crude Shipments
The Americans should be aware that Iran will keep selling oil and they will not be able to stop it, Rouhani said, adding that “if one day the United States wants to prevent the export of Iran’s oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf.”
He had said in the past it is meaningless that Iranian crude could not be exported while oil export from the region continues.
Although he did not provide a clarification, his words were interpreted at the time as a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile US action against Iran.
Iranian authorities later said Iran has various options to respond to any act of provocation by the United States, with some saying that closing the shipping lane is not on the country’s agenda.
In his speech on Tuesday, the president said US attempts to drive a wedge between the Islamic Republic and other countries, particularly neighboring and Muslim nations, will prove futile.
“America is trying to push Iran’s neighbors, Europe, China and India away from the country and is spreading Iranophobia. This is while we have never been and will never be an enemy of any of our neighbors,” he said, pledging that Tehran will continue to expand its international relations.
Rouhani noted that American and Israeli officials cannot tolerate a strong Iran but the country will keep making progress and not concede to their demands.
“Only a few small countries and the Zionist regime support the US hostile attitude toward Iran, and other governments have all condemned US sanctions against the Iranian people,” the president was quoted as saying.
