US failed to zero out Iran's oil sales: Speaker Larijani

Iran’s Parliament speaker Ali Larijani says the United States has had no success in its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran even as American sanctions have impacted the Iranian economy.

Washington has been tightening the screws on Tehran’s main source of income, aiming to cut Iran’s oil sales to zero, after President Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic in November.

“The Americans have not achieved any success against Iran. They wanted to bring oil sales down to zero but they did not succeed,” Larijani told a parliament session in Tehran Tuesday.

While the sanctions resulted in a decline in Iran’s oil sales and created some economic pressure, the Americans failed to achieve their primary goals, the speaker added.

Larijani said, “The American adventurism has posed us a new problem every single day which has impacted our economy, so a clear analysis of their actions is needed.”

According to the Iranian parliament speaker, the primary goal behind this animosity is to check Iran’s economic development.

“Through economic pressures, they want to have Iran stuck in internal problems. They have ratcheted up pressure on people to stir economic discontent,” he said.

EA