US sanctions made Iran stronger, says Rouhani

Iran President Hassan Rouhani. (IANS File Photo)

TEHRAN, JANUARY 16 (IANS): Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said here on Thursday that the US sanctions against Tehran have made the Islamic Republic even "stronger".

Despite "US plots and pressures", it was the Iranian nation "who dared to shower missiles on one of the US' important military bases in the region", Xinhua news agency quoted the President as saying.

Rouhani was referring to the January 8 Iranian airstrikes on two military bases in Iraq that houses US troops.

The airstrikes were in retaliation to the January 3 killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, who died due to an American drone attack near the Baghdad airport.

Iran's resistance and responses to the US threats have made the Americans step back, Rouhani said, adding: "It has been proven to the world and to the Americans that their plan to exert maximum sanction pressures Iran was a miscalculation." US plots have made the Iranians "stronger and more solid", he further said.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the Iranian nuclear deal and imposed old and new sanctions against Tehran, seeking to press the nation for a new deal.

In response, Iran gave up all practical commitments to the deal and said it would not negotiate.