President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, described shooting down the American drone as “delightful” and said Iran will hit “any aggressor whether it be a drone, plane, ship, or anything else.”

President Rouhani said on Wednesday: “Shooting down a modern American drone was a work of art, the fact that we shot it with our own missiles, is another work of art; searching and locating it with our own (Iranian made) radar system is the third work of art, and locking the drone with our own system was the fourth work of art, and it was all Iranian work.”

Rouhani is referring to the American drone that was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on June 20, which escalated the tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic claims the drone was in Iranian airspace while the United States claims it was shot down in international airspace.

Regarding the sanctions, Rouhani said: “People had a hard time last years and they will have a hard time this year.” He emphasized, however, that “the government’s capabilities and resources are limited, but people’s patience and tolerance is infinite.”

Rouhani confessed that in the past 40 years, Iran was never sanctioned so severely.

“America is completely disappointed in changing the Islamic Republic regime and break the people’s independence,” Rouhani added.

He once again described US sanctions as economic terrorism and claimed that the sanctions affect sick children in hospitals.

Brian Hook, the chairman of Iran Action Group in US State Department recently released a video announcing that the purchase of food, medicine, and medical equipment was never included in US sanctions and that the Islamic Republic constantly lies about this fact.