TEHRAN - Mahmoud Vaezi, the presidential chief of staff, said on Tuesday that the United States’ sanctions against Iran is “a failed project”.

“We have passed the difficult situation through the people’s resistance and comprehensive efforts,” Vaezi said during a meeting with a group of businessmen and entrepreneurs in Ardabil Province.

He added, “Sanction cannot continue.” 

The people’s resistance has proven that the U.S., the Zionist regime of Israel and their regional allies cannot reach their objective through sanctions, the presidential chief of staff pointed out.

“Iran will continue the path of progress and development despite sanctions and maximum pressure,” he said.

Iran has said that it has adopted “maximum resistance” in the face of the U.S. “maximum pressure”.

On December 24, Iranian First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said that the U.S. policies to collapse the Iranian economy have failed.

“Iran has stood on its feet despite the United States’ animosities, and policies to collapse Iran’s economy have ended in failure,” Jahangiri said.

The vice president noted that the U.S. failure shows Iran’s economic capacities.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on December 23 that the White House has no way in the standoff with Iran except putting an end to its policy of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

“The current situation will pass. Soon or late, the United States has to refrain from adopting the policy of maximum pressure on Iran before or after 2020 presidential election,” Rouhani said during a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the multilateral 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions against Iran under his officially stated “maximum pressure” strategy, has been trying to reach the Islamic republic for dialogue.  

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on December 23 that the U.S. has gained nothing by adopting the policy of maximum pressure against Tehran, noting such approaches cannot bring the Iranian people to their knees.  

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said on December 1 that maximum pressure is a “wrong policy” and the U.S. must stop it.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran bankrupt.

“We have been pressuring them. Maximum pressure… we’re seeing the unfolding of really a bankruptcy of approach,” he told CBS News.

NA/PA