A couple pray after a rally marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the United States Embassy outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, capital of Iran, on Nov. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)
TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States will not be able to stop Iran's oil exports, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday.
Iran will continue to sell its crude oil in the international market despite "cruel" U.S. new sanctions, Rouhani said.
Iran will break the sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran in the "appropriate" way, Rouhani said shortly after a fresh round of anti-Iran sanctions by the United States took effect on Monday.
"With the help of the people, and the unity that exists in our society, we have to make the Americans understand that they must not use the language of force, pressure, or threats to speak to the great Iranian nation. They must be punished once and for all," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.
The U.S. officials have come to the understanding that they could not replace the Iranian oil on the market, he said, adding that even if they did not grant waivers to some countries to keep trading oil with Iran, "we would still be able to sell our oil and we have adequate capabilities to do that."
All the U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been removed under the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal were restored by the United States on Friday and came into force on Monday.
The U.S. embargo targets many of the country's "critical sectors" like energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and finance.
Washington has accused Iran of agitating regional instability and exporting violence, which has been denied by Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump, who terminated the hard-won Iran nuclear accord on May 8, said that it was "one of the worst and most one-sided deals the United States has ever entered into."
On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on his official twitter account slammed U.S. defiance to the international conventions.
"U.S. defied UN top court and Security Council by reimposing sanctions on Iran that target ordinary people," Zarif tweeted.
"But U.S. bullying is backfiring, not just because JCPOA (nuclear deal) is important, but because the world cannot allow Trump to destroy global order. The U.S., not Iran, is isolated," Zarif added.
Earlier in the day, Zarif said that the fresh round of U.S. sanctions on Iran has failed to cut Tehran's oil exports to zero.
The U.S. withdrawal from the multilateral JCPOA in May was a "scandal" for Washington, he said.
"We can see ... the JCPOA was so much in favor of Iran's interests that America withdrew from it scandalously," Zarif told Iran's parliament.
Besides, the Iranian top diplomat touched on the possibility of negotiations between the United States and the Islamic republic under certain conditions.
Zarif said that the talks with the United States over a new nuclear agreement remains open if Washington changes its approach to the 2015 international nuclear deal, Press TV reported.
Iran would consider new diplomacy if there were "foundations for a fruitful dialogue" on the Iranian nuclear deal, Zarif was quoted as saying.
However, the current U.S. "government does not believe in diplomacy. It believes in imposition," he added.
"It is mutual respect, not mutual trust that is a requirement to start negotiations," Zarif noted.
