By Staff, Agencies

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani confirmed that the US sanctions and pressures have failed to force the Iranian nation to give in to Washington’s excessive demands.

“The harshest ever sanctions were imposed against our nation [last year] by global terrorists,” Rouhani said on Friday morning in a message to Iranians on the occasion of New Year.

He added, “Our oil industry came under the most severe sanctions regime in history and pressures were mounted on our economy from all directions.”

In parallel, Rouhani further underlined: “The Americans sought to increase pressure on Iran through sanctions in an attempt to force the nation to buckle under pressure, but our great nation resisted and created another epic. “

“We were not defeated; in fact, we stood up against US pressures and resisted,” Rouhani said.

Elsewhere in his televised message, the Iranian president expressed his thanks to people, the country’s medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, and NGOs for their hard work to stem the “destructive” novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

Iran is battling the coronavirus pandemic under the harshest ever sanctions by the US, which were re-imposed after Washington left a UN-backed landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers in 2018.