TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Hassan Rouhani says the economic war waged by the United States against the Islamic Republic has totally failed and all measures taken by Washington to bring Tehran to its knees have been proven futile.

Rouhani made the remarks in an address via videoconference to the 10th summit of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, on Thursday.

“Here, I am honored to announce that all illegal unilateral measures taken by the United States to bring the Iranian nation to its knees have failed,” Iran’s president told the D-8 participants.

“Despite suffering heavy economic pressures, we have been able by relying on our own domestic will and capabilities to break remarkable grounds in various fields, including in the field of fighting the COVID-19 and its aftereffects,” he said.

Rouhani said while the world economy shrank by 3.5 percent and many countries experienced negative economic growth of five to 10 percent, the Iranian economy grew by more than 2 percent in the same period.

This clearly attests to the failure of the United States in its economic war against Iran, he added.

“In the last four years, the international community has witnessed the intensification of the U.S. government’s economic war against Iran. These cruel sanctions have caused great damage to our country,” Rouhani noted.

Despite U.S. efforts, “the nuclear deal, which the United States violated and did its utmost to destroy, has been preserved thanks to the wisdom of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.

The president underlined that Washington is obligated to return to the JCPOA by lifting all anti-Iran sanctions and taking practical measures to secure Iran’s interests under the nuclear pact because “this is the duty of the same government that has reneged on the agreement.”

“The Islamic Republic, for its part, will definitely respond to such U.S. action with a positive reciprocal measure,” he asserted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani further denounced unilateralism and economic terrorism as issues that go hand in hand with the coronavirus in harming the international community.

These actions, he continued, not only illegally target ruling governments and independent nations, but also pose a serious threat to the achievements of the international community.

He also pointed to the issue of organized Islamophobia in the world, saying that in addition to targeting Islam’s lofty values and dignity, Islamophobia has also had far-reaching negative economic impacts on Islamic countries.

Rouhani went on to say, “we will establish the first free trade zone with the Eurasian countries, shortly.”

The 10th Summit of the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation kicked off on Thursday with President Rouhani and the member states’ leaders in attendance.

In the virtual summit hosted by Bangladesh as the organization’s current chair, leaders of Iran, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, and Nigeria are taking part.

Ever since the dawn of the D-8, the Islamic Republic of Iran has endeavored to play its part in accomplishing the Organization’s lofty objectives. Such measures as the establishment of the D-8 International University and D-8 Technology Transfer and Exchange Network, which, combined, target two key areas of ‘education and human resource development and ‘development of technological cooperation’ among eight countries, are testimony to our efforts.

Rouhani also noted, “We are fully prepared to participate in the operationalization of D-8 agreements in IT, trade facilitation, investment, agriculture, petrochemicals, science, health, tourism, and visa issuance facilitation. Given the importance of foreign trade for national development and public welfare of the great people of D-8 Member States, I would like to stress that the current trade volume among the eight countries is a far cry from the actual trade potentials of the D-8.”

Certain mechanisms must be developed to promote and promote trade among the Member States, including through customs and banking facilities and mechanisms as also non-banking ones. Such proposed initiatives as a D-8 chamber of barter trade and D-8 credit cards may help this context, he continued.