As the new round of U.S. sanctions goes into effect, Hassan Rouhani, the president of the Islamic Republic said that the United States has been forced to compromise in its efforts to put pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Rouhani is referring to the waivers that the United States has issued for some countries which exempt them from the sanctions.

Rouhani said: “The United States was forced to exempt 8 countries while they had said before that they want to bring our oil export down to zero.” He claimed that the exemptions are a great victory for the Islamic Republic. He also said: “What Americans are doing only puts pressure on the people and nothing else.”

Despite Rouhani’s claims, it seems that president Trump has been much more successful in putting pressure on the Islamic Republic regime and the IRGC in just a few months (since his exit from JCPOA) than President Obama was in three years. President Obama exempted 20 countries from sanctions in 3 years, even though the international community claimed to support him. In addition, Trump has been able to lower Iran’s oil export in these few months as much as Obama did in three years, which can be considered a big win for Trump.

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state said on Sunday, November 4th that the sanctions “are aimed at the Islamic Republic regime and not the Iranian people who have suffered the pain of their government’s mismanagement, theft, and brutality.