Referring to Washington's new, additional sanctions on Tehran, the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said on Monday that "these decisions and sanctions have caused serious monetary and financial damages to Iran."
At his weekly press conference on Monday, Khatibzadeh announced, "We have been working for months to stop such shocks."
However, he warned that "the United States must make up for all the damage it has done to Iran. Iranian people should not doubt that we will cash compensation for all damages cent by cent."
"The damage incurred on Iran is filed in the bill submitted to the International Court of Justice," he added
Following its "maximum pressure" policy on Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted 18 Iranian banks that were previously exempt from some Washington restrictions.
The devaluation of Iran's national currency, the rial, has set new records in recent days. The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Abdol Nasser Hemmati, has admitted that the news related to the Trump administration's decision to sanction more Iranian banks has had a "psychological effect" on the local forex market.
While the immediate and far-reaching impact of the new U.S. sanctions on Iran's foreign exchange market and the economy is palpable, Iranian government officials have repeatedly described the U.S. government's actions as "propaganda" and "electoral."
Khatibzadeh echoed the same remarks on Monday and dismissed the sanctions as an "overused tool," while admitting that Washington's sanctions had terrified many private companies, which has created additional problems.
"Europe and some other parties have failed to honor their commitments. Whoever obeys the (U.S.) sanctions would be an accomplice in the crimes against (Iranian) people," he said.
On October 5, Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Iran and Venezuela, told CNN that officials in some countries had not complied with sanctions' pressure, especially arms sanctions against Iran.
"I think we have repeatedly shown that it does not matter what the Secretary of State says when it comes to sanctions, whether at the United Nations or anywhere else," he said. "Foreign Ministers do not decide to follow U.S. sanctions. It is up to tens of thousands or fifty thousand corporate executives, corporate bankers' and financial institutions' lawyers who look at the issue and say, we are not going to take the risk."
Abrams added that he believed the administration's "maximum pressure" strategy would bring Iran back to the negotiating table.
In recent days, the chairman of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi, commented on the pressure of sanctions on the Iranian people, saying that "there are high costs, but the people endure the economic pressure."
Additionally, an adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Akbar Velayati, previously told the Iranian people, "Let us learn from the Yemenis how to resist threats and sanctions. Instead of clothes, they wrap up themselves in sarongs, hold a gun, carry a few pieces of dried bread, and walk on foot. They have mad Saudis beleaguered."
