The United States cannot bring Iranian nation to its knees: President Hassan Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
President Hassan Rouhani says the United States cannot bend the Iranian nation into submission, something that is clearly witnessed by the country’s operationalizing of various developmental projects some two years after Washington renewed its sanctions against Tehran.

“The US cannot bring [the Iranian] nation to its knees,” Rouhani said on Thursday. He made the remarks while addressing inauguration of national developmental projects for the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province, and installation of an oil rig on the site of the Phase 11 of the South Pars Gas Field.

“The intense and unprecedented pressure of the sanctions cannot [adversely] affect the nation’s march,” he added, saying what bore witness to this was the Islamic Republic’s operationalization of many such projects during the past two months in the post-sanction era.

Washington returned its bans in May 2018 after unilaterally and illegally leaving a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major world powers.

Late last month, IRNA reported that Iran had officially begun building out the major offshore gas field that is located off the Persian Gulf. The project had been abandoned by foreign companies amid fears of American punitive measures.

Either “the American virus” or the new coronavirus are capable of complicating the nation’s advance, the president said. However, neither is potent enough to prevent the Islamic Republic from making progress and enhancing its production levels.

“We would try our utmost to implement the goal” set by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for this year, Rouhani said, referring to the “Jump in Production” motto devised by the Leader.

The country would, therefore, try to unveil “great projects every week” over the next 10 months, the chief executive said.

Iran will not let White House gloat

Outfitted with the people’s support, the Islamic Republic would not “let any smile appear on the faces of the White House’s despotic tenants,” the president said.

“We will act in such a way that would strike them with sadness and sorrow [as they walk down] their wrongful political path,” he added, asserting that the already proud Iranian nation would be able to “hold its head even higher” and weather existing problems.

The country would even be able to render assistance to others, including the oppressed Palestinian nation, Rouhani said on the eve of International Quds Day, which is marked by millions worldwide each year in support of the Palestinian nation.

Looming containment of coronavirus

The president separately attended a meeting by the committee heads of the National Task Force for Fighting the Coronavirus, saying the country was to reopen its places of worship nationwide following the holy fasting month of Ramadan amid certain preventative protocols that would be announced duly.

He hailed that the course of infection with the virus had taken a downward trend countrywide and that the country had reached the “threshold of the stage” when it could bring the outbreak under control.

He cited the fact that patients diagnosed with the virus were now spending shorter hospitalization periods as an indication of looming arrival at that stage.

The president said the achievement was owed to the people’s cooperation with the authorities and their commitment to standing health protocols.

However, health officials have begun raising warnings about the virus resurgence in the fall, something that warranted devising of relevant information campaigns and precautions, Rouhani noted.

As many as 330,798 people have died worldwide from the viral outbreak since late last year when the respiratory infection emerged in central China. The death toll suffered by Iran stands at 7,249.