The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, emphasized the “extraordinary, difficult, and complicated” conditions of the country and said: “Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the most difficult times have been these recent months and days, because, since the revolution, we have never had such difficulty selling our oil and sending oil tankers as we have today.”

In a speech in Kerman province on Tuesday, Rouhani talked about the cost of shutting down oil wells and resuming their function and said: “When the oil is not extracted for a while, restarting oil wells is difficult. In 2015, we spent $800 million to reopen our oil wells again.”

He added: “When the country faces problems selling its oil, how can we govern the country?”

Rouhani also mentioned tax evasions and said: “The highest estimation for tax revenue next year is 150 trillion tomans. We need 450 trillion tomans to govern the country. Where should we get the remaining 300 trillion tomans?”

He continued: “The only income that can help govern the country is oil revenue. If we were in a normal situation, we would be selling $60 billion in oil on average each year and if we calculate dollar at 10000 tomans, it adds up to 600 trillion tomans.”

Rouhani mentioned that in 1985, the country’s oil production was stopped for two weeks due to bombardments but has never been stopped since.

A few months earlier, Rouhani’s minister of oil also claimed that the current situation is more difficult than the time of war with Iraq.

Zangeneh claimed: “In the recent 5 to 6 years, the Americans have matured to a satanic level in their intelligent sanctions, and these rounds of sanctions are very different than the previous ones.” He said: “We are facing the most severe organized sanctions in history.”

According to reports from Reuters and Refinitiv Eikon, Iran was able to export 100 to 120 thousand barrels of oil a day in the month of July. In 2016, Iran was exporting 2.5 to 2.7 million barrels a day.