TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani has censured his outgoing American counterpart, saying Donald Trump’s actions against the Islamic Republic were based on his illusions.

“Trump did not recognize the capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran at all and acted on his own illusions,” Rouhani said at a meeting of the government’s economic coordination headquarters in Tehran on Tuesday, ISNA reported.

He said the nation’s resistance in the face of sanctions and the failure of Trump’s economic war against Iran proved “great realities” to the world and to Iran’s foes.

Rouhani urged Iran’s enemies to abandon the wrong and failed policy of sanctions against Tehran once and for all.

According to President Rouhani, Trump’s defeat in the November presidential election was mainly the result of his failure in the economic war on Iran in addition to his other foreign policy failures.

The U.S., under Trump, unleashed the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran in 2018, when it unilaterally left the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

However, with the defeat of Trump in the November 3 presidential election, hopes were raised over a possible revival of the JCPOA under President-elect Joe Biden, who has signaled that he intends to rejoin the pact.

“Even though the economic war has inflicted a lot of damage, especially on public livelihoods, the architects of the sanctions and warmongers who thought Iran’s economy would collapse in the short term are leaving the White House,” Rouhani remarked.

“This is while the Iranian nation has proudly emerged victorious in an all-out economic war stronger than ever,” he added.

Following Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, Iran has reiterated its stance that it will not renegotiate the terms of the JCPOA.

President Rouhani said on Monday that Iran will not accept any precondition for the reactivation of the JCPOA.

“Either all implement or do not implement the JCPOA. If all implement it we also implement it,” he said.

He also said the economic war waged by the Trump administration has been a total failure.

“One of the goals that the [Iranian] administration pursues is to defeat sanctions ... because Trump’s economic war has failed and the entire world has owned up to this [fact],” Rouhani said.

“The whole world is putting pressure on the United States to return to the JCPOA, so that the deal could be activated again,” the president said, adding, “One of the main services of the 12th [Iranian] administration …was that it used all in its power to prevent destruction of the JCPOA.”

MH/PA