President Hassan Rouhani says the people in the world are greatly indebted to the Iranian nation for helping to bring about the departure of ex-US president Donald Trump through resistance in the face of his pressure campaign.
Rouhani made the remarks on Wednesday at a ceremony on the occasion the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the US-backed Pahlavi regime.
He said that Iranians have in recent years witnessed two wars, one of which was imposed by the regime of ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on the Iran and lasted for eight years in the 1980s. In that war, he added, the Iranian nation relied solely on God, while the aggressors were dependent on the big powers in the East and West.
Over the past three years, Rouhani said, the Iranian people have been dealing with an economic war which was initiated by the Trump administration, following its unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal — officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“In that imposed war, we achieved a great victory. We will likewise emerge victorious in this economic war by God’s power,” Rouhani said.
“All the people of the world owe a great debt to the Iranian nation. It would have been a hassle-free victory for Trump [in 2020 elections] if the Iranian nation had not stood up to this tyrant and not defeated him through its resistance, and if the [Iranian] government had not exercised prudence and left the JCPOA immediately after Trump did,” he added.
Had Iran left the nuclear deal, all international sanctions would have been restored against the country, marking a victory for the Israeli regime as well as the regional reactionaries and extremists.
“The people’s resistance and the government’s prudence, however, led to Trump’s humiliation in the past three years,” he added.
The Iranian chief executive further highlighted numerous blows dealt to the US by Iran over the past few years at the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“The one who overthrew Trump was God and the one who apparently caused the ouster of Trump in the United States was the vigilant nation of that country. The role of the Iranian nation has been very effective in toppling this tyrant. With Trump gone, the world today is indebted to Iran for [the return of] a sense of security, stability and rule of law.”
Following its withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018, the Trump administration unleashed the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran and targeted the nation with the “toughest ever” economic sanctions.
In his final months in office, Trump tightened the oppressive restrictions against the Islamic Republic, defying warnings from Tehran and international human rights organizations that the restrictions are severely hampering the Iranian health sector’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
“The era of maximum sanctions is over. The era of the economic war is over,” said Rouhani. “Everyone has realized that the ‘maximum pressure’ has failed, but a final victory still needs patience and resistance,” Rouhani said.