“Their goal was to bring about the collapse of Iran’s economy but the government, through planning, did not allow them to achieve their goal. Fortunately, the country’s economy is still kept afloat,” Jahangiri said in a telephone conversation with Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani on Saturday, adding that the Americans have imposed unprecedented sanctions and pressure on the Iranian nation.

The vice president said Iran is currently facing two main problems: U.S. cruel sanctions and problems arising from the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

For his part, the grand ayatollah said high prices and economic pressure are inflicting pain on ordinary people and that the government needs to take measures to decrease the sufferings of the people.

On Saturday, Jahangiri spoke by phone with a number of Maraji (religious leaders) or their representatives. He held telephone conversations with Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, Ayatollah Alavi Gorgani, and the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iran, Ayatollah Shahrestani.

The vice president told the representative of Ayatollah Sistani that the U.S. sanctions have made life difficult for the Iranian people.

“The cruel and cowardly sanctions of the United States have put heavy pressure on the livelihood of the people, and we hope that with double efforts, the participation of the people and the prayers of the Maraji, we can resolve these problems,” Jahangiri said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has unilaterally withdrawn the U.S. from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that had provided Iran with sanctions relief for nearly two years. Calling the Iran nuclear deal “the worst deal in history,” Trump called for making a “better” one with Iran while imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Iran.

Iranian officials have said the U.S. sanctions on Iran amount to “economic terrorism,” which aims to bring about the collapse of the Iranian economy. In late July, President Hassan Rouhani said the U.S. sanctions were aimed at causing economic collapse in Iran but they failed to do so.

Rouhani recently said the U.S. has imposed an economic war on Iran.

“We have been under sanctions since 1980 but since 2017 an economic war began. Right now, it is not sanctions but an economic war. The U.S., with all its capacities such as dollar, banking ties, and its relations with multinational companies, has waged an economic war against us,” Rouhani said on September 23.

The White House has also bragged about its sanctions on Iran. American officials have said on many occasions that they imposed the strongest sanctions in history on Iran, a move that negatively impacted ordinary Iranians especially those suffering from severe diseases that need expensive medicines and their medicines are imported.

The sanctions also caused shortage of medicines because many pharmaceutical firms refrain from doing business with Iran out of fear that they might fall afoul of U.S. sanctions.