TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that Iran has set the bedrock for democracy and elections in the West Asia region.

“In this region, we laid the grounds for democracy. We formed parliament before anyone in this region had parliament. We formed elections and took the people to the ballot box,” he said during a speech at a ceremony to praise the top Khwarizmi International Award winners.

Rouhani also said that the Iranians should be optimistic and be proud of not being broken by the sanctions pressure.

Despite the sanctions and pressure, Iran has continued the right path, he noted.

In a press conference on Sunday, Rouhani said the United States’ maximum pressure against Iran has failed and sanctions will be ineffective.

“20 months have passed since the United States’ sanctions and maximum pressure. Our situation has become better in the past 6 months and the maximum pressure has failed,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally quit the nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.

Many analysts and think tanks believe that the maximum pressure policy has failed.

NA/PA