Iran's Rouhani says U.S. sanctions are 'terrorist act'

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday relations with the United States had rarely been so bad and that sanctions imposed by the Trump administration targeting Tehran’s oil and banking sectors amounted to “a terrorist act”.

“The U.S. pressures on firms and banks to halt business with Iran is one hundred percent a terrorist act,” he said.

Trump has reimposed the sanctions with the aim of slashing Iranian oil sales and choking its economy in order to curb its ballistic missile program and its activities in the Middle East, especially in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.