“The government is determined to defeat (the enemy) by bypassing America’s sanctions…or through various means including talks, but we will not cross our red lines,” Rouhani said, according to Reuters.

“Undoubtedly, decrease in government’s revenues, problems created on the path of banking relations and export of oil and goods, have impacts on the people’s life, so the people should know that as long as the cruel sanctions exist, such problems will exist too and we should try to overcome them,” President Rouhani said, according to the president’s official website.

Tensions have soared between Tehran and Washington since May last year when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers and reimposed sanctions on Tehran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at forcing it to renegotiate a new deal.

Iran has rejected negotiating a new deal with the Trump administration, saying talks are only possible if Washington returns to the nuclear pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and lifts sanctions.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the US, France, Britain, Russia, and China – plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015, and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions.

Since May 2019, Iran has rowed back on its nuclear commitments four times in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA.

In a rare act of cooperation between Tehran and Washington, Iran and the United States each freed a prisoner on Saturday.

Washington said it was hopeful that the prisoner swap would lead to the release of other Americans held in Iran and that it was a sign Tehran was willing to discuss other issues.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also has said Tehran was “fully ready” for a comprehensive prisoner exchange with the US.

Iran released Xiyue Wang, a US citizen who had been held for three years on spying charges, while the United States freed Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani, who had faced charges of violating US sanctions against Tehran.

Iran said on Monday there were about 20 Iranians jailed in the United States in cases linked to sanctions violations.