Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a cabinet meeting in Tehran on June 10, 2020. (Photo by president.ir)

President Hassan Rouhani says the Iranian nation has managed to defeat America’s longtime knee-to-neck policy by staying united and standing up against Washington’s pressure campaign.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said the US has long been bullying the world’s oppressed nations with the aim of destroying them, saying the knee-to-neck restraint is not simply a technique used by a single police officer in one US city. Rather, it is basically is a key policy of America.

The Iranian president was drawing an analogy between America’s entire foreign policy agenda and the case of a Minnesota officer, who killed an unarmed black man in custody late last month by putting his knee on the back of the handcuffed man’s neck and suffocating him.

Rouhani referred to the maximum pressure campaign that the US unleashed against the Iranian nation after withdrawing from a multilateral nuclear deal in 2018, saying the Americans were, in fact, pursuing the same strategy against the Iranian nation back then.

The US nearly placed its knee on the throat of the Iranian nation, who broke it with the hammer of unity, he said, adding that the Iranians neutralized the US pressure mechanism through their solidarity.

Now, they no longer have a knee to exert pressure on the Iranian nation, but sticking to the same policy, they keep hatching new plots, he added.

Elsewhere in his comments, the Iranian chief executive said that Washington was angry and upset at the looming expiration of a UN arms embargo on Iran under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2231 that endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The US, he pointed out, is preparing a resolution at the Security Council to block the measure.

We expect the four other permanent Security Council members to put up resistance against this conspiracy for the sake of the interests and stability of the world as well as the interests envisioned in the nuclear deal for the region and the globe, Rouhani said.

In particular, we expect friendly countries, including Russia and China, to resist this conspiracy, he added.

Despite having left the JCPOA, Washington has recently launched a campaign to renew the Iran arms ban - in place since 2006/2007 - through a UNSC resolution, but Moscow and Beijing are most likely to veto it.

The Americans should know that whether they take the resolution to the UNSC or not, Iran’s defense capabilities will see a boost despite all the difficulties and sanctions, Rouhani said.

SOURCE: PRESS TV