TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the people of the world are greatly indebted to the Iranian nation for helping bring about the departure of former U.S. President Donald Trump through resistance in the face of his pressure campaign.

Rouhani made the remarks at a ceremony commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Pahlavi regime.

The president compared the Trump administration’s economic pressure on Iran with the eight-year war waged on Iran by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.

In recent years, the Iranians witnessed two wars, one of which was imposed by the regime of ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Iran and lasted for eight years in the 1980s, Rouhani said, according to Press TV.

Over the past three years, Rouhani continued, the Iranian people have been dealing with an economic war which was initiated by the Trump administration, following its unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal — officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“In that imposed war, we achieved a great victory. We will likewise emerge victorious in this economic war by God’s power,” Rouhani said, adding, “All the people of the world owe a great debt to the Iranian nation. It would have been a hassle-free victory for Trump [in 2020 elections] if the Iranian nation had not stood up to this tyrant and not defeated him through its resistance, and if the [Iranian] government had not exercised prudence and left the JCPOA immediately after Trump did.”

Rouhani called Trump a “tyrant,” underlining the role the Iranian people played in his defeat.

 “The one who overthrew Trump was God and the one who apparently caused the ouster of Trump in the United States was the vigilant nation of that country. The role of the Iranian nation has been very effective in toppling this tyrant. With Trump gone, the world today is indebted to Iran for [the return of] a sense of security, stability and rule of law,” Rouhani noted.

The president also said that the era of Trump’s pressures on Iran is over.

“The era of maximum sanctions is over. The era of the economic war is over,” said Rouhani. “Everyone has realized that the ‘maximum pressure’ has failed, but a final victory still needs patience and resistance,” Rouhani pointed out.