TEHRAN Iran responded to the United States’ imposition of tough new sanctions on Monday with air defence drills and confident and confrontational rhetoric.
“We are in the war situation,” President Hassan Rouhani said in a television address as the sanctions snapped into place.
“We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win.”
The US sanctions herald the end of Washington’s involvement in the landmark 2015 deal signed between the countries and other world powers, which was designed to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The sanctions bring to an end all the economic benefits the US granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord under which it limited its enrichment of uranium.
“Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell,” Rouhani said on Monday as the sanctions kicked in.
Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in military manoeuvres across a vast stretch of the country’s north.
The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Gen Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s were taking part in the exercise.
“With the help of the people, and the unity that exists in our society, we have to make the Americans understand that they must not use the language of force, pressure, and threats to speak to the great Iranian nation. They must be punished once and for all,” the Iranian president said.
President Rouhani said Europe, too, was angry at US policies.
“Today, what the Americans are doing is merely pressure [ordinary] people, and no one else. It’s pressure [that is being put] on [the Iranian] people, other nations, other [foreign] businesses, and other governments,” he said. “Today, we are not the only ones who are angry at US policies; even European businesses and governments are angered by US policies, too.”
The US had since the May 8 withdrawal designated November 4 as the date when it aimed to bring Iran’s oil sales down to “zero.” However, three days ahead of that much-advertised deadline, the US granted waivers to eight major state buyers of Iranian crude.
President Rouhani said US officials had in fact conceded defeat.
“They (the Americans) saw that they couldn’t replace [Iranian oil on the market]; and even assuming they did not concede defeat and did not grant waivers to countries, we would still be able to sell our oil [because] we have adequate capabilities to do that,” the Iranian president said.
‘Europeans want Trump gone’
In his Monday remarks, President Rouhani also said he believed that America had never before seen as lawless an administration as that of Trump’s.
He said all US administrations had violated international law, but “these (current officials) score on top on the lawlessness rankings.”
“I don’t recall a group assuming power at the White House that was racist as these,” the Iranian president said.
“This is not [just] us who wish for the life of this incumbent administration in the US to become shorter and shorter; their (the Americans’) own European allies have told me in [private] meetings that that is one of their wishes,” President Rouhani said.
‘Dialog needs no intermediary, but US must honor promises’
President Rouhani said that when he was in New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September, “the leaders of four major countries” sought to broker a meeting between him and the US president. He did not name those leaders.
The Iranian chief executive said, however, that there was no need for mediation.
“Honor your obligations first! We will speak then,” Rouhani said, addressing American officials. “We have no problem with talking. If our interlocutor honors its word and promises, what will be wrong with talking?”
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