President Rouhani Lauds Iranians’ Resistance against US Sanctions

“For 14 months, the world’s biggest economic and military power has imposed the severest sanctions on Iran,” Rouhani said, addressing a gathering of people in the northeastern city of Shirvan in North Khorasan Province on Sunday.

“If these sanctions had targeted any other nation, they would have knocked down that nation, but Iran's people are standing firm,” he added.

Rouhani further emphasized that the US government has been defeated in any path it chose to hit the Iranian nation.

At the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) no country trusted US claims against the Islamic Republic, he went on to say.

The IAEA held a special meeting on Wednesday at Washington’s request to win the Board of Governors’ support for its anti-Iran claims about the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The emergency meeting of the 35-member Board of Governors of the IAEA was held in Vienna to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, which wrapped up with no conclusion.

The meeting came a few days after Iran increased the level of its uranium enrichment to 4.5%, which is beyond the limit set by the JCPOA. The move was part of the second phase of the country’s May 8 decision to reduce its commitments under the multilateral 2015 nuclear deal in reaction to the US violations and Europe’s inaction.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA.

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal, including a rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.