Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that newly imposed U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s shipping, shipbuilding and financial sectors will not impact the country’s economy since the White House had already applied extensive sanctions on the Islamic republic.
“The sanctions have had no impact on our economy because America had already used all the weapons at its disposal and there was nothing new to use against us,” Rouhani said in remarks carried live on state television, according to Reuters.
{mosads}“They just issued a long list of banks, their branches … and airlines and their planes. And this shows that they are merely trying to affect the Iranian nation psychologically,” he added.
The sanctions imposed Monday are the final round to be reinstated following President Trump’s withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, which gave the country billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.
The agreement was reached between Iran and the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia.
The White House has said it will temporarily allow eight importers of Iranian oil to continue such trade.
“It has now become clear that America cannot cut Iran’s oil exports to zero,” Rouhani said.
The sanctions are intended to curb Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as well as its funding of proxy forces in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and other areas across the Middle East.
“This part of the campaign about which we’re speaking today is simple: It is aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on a conference call with reporters.