Rouhani made the remarks while visiting an exhibition of petrochemical industry achievements on Monday at a ceremony marking the national Petrochemical Industry Day.
“Here I will say frankly that the era of sanctions and pressure on the Iranian people will come to an end because our enemies have realized that they cannot force us into surrender with their ‘maximum pressure’ campaign,” the president said.
He went on to add, “their sole objective was to force us to sit at a negotiating table where we had no other choice but to accept all of their terms. This is impossible for our Islamic Iran.”
Rouhani then addressed domestic criticism at his government’s failure to live up to a number of its promises, saying “we made those promises during a period of peace, but then we were forced into a war that we didn’t choose and we didn’t start.”
“They started a full-out economic war against us," he said, in reference to the US' sanctions on Iran. "They wanted to make it a political war by trying to rally the whole world against us, but they failed at that. They also wanted to make it a 'legal war', by pressuring the United Nations and other international organizations to condemn us; they failed at that, too,” Rouhani said.
Elsewhere, the president hailed the efforts of all managers, entrepreneurs and those active in the petrochemical sector, saying, "our petrochemical industry’s current income is roughly $17 billion, which will increase to $25 billion in two years, and then to $37 billion by the end of the third step."
“The upward trend of growth indices and figures show that despite the tough economic sanctions, the enemies have been unsuccessful in advancing their goals with the hard work of the forerunners of the economy front with people’s support and presence," he added.
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