TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has rejected claims that the so-called non-targeted sanctions have been partially removed.

“Based on the JCPOA [the 2015 nuclear deal] and Resolution 2231 [of the UN Security Council which endorses the JCPOA], the United States is duty bound to lift all the sanctions it has imposed after withdrawal from the JCPOA,” he told reporters.

Mousavi described claims about partial removal of sanctions as fake and called the U.S. unilateral sanctions “cruel” and “illegal”.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

President Hassan Rouhani said on August 5 that enemy must know that the Iranians cannot be brought to their knees through sanctions.

“We have to make the enemies understand that they cannot bring us to knees by sanctions and they have no other way but to accept the logic and truth. That day will not be far and we will gain success through patience and resistance,” Rouhani said during a cabinet meeting.

NA/PA