Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has revealed that former IRGC Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani sold oil in the international market on behalf of the government to break US sanctions.

Jahangiri said that while many individuals claimed to be able to circumvent the sanctions and sell Iran's oil, Soleimani, who was killed in January 2020, was the only one who was able to do it and repatriate some money.

Jahangiri, in an extensive interview with the official government news agency IRNA on Sunday [March 14], was defending the record of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration struggling amid tough US sanctions.

Jahangiri explained nearly eight years of efforts to keep the economy afloat while Iran was first facing international sanctions until 2016, and then US sanctions since 2018, which he called an economic war. He acknowledged that Iranians have been living under difficult conditions and admitted that they have a right to complain about shortcomings.

He said after the political turmoil in 2009 following the disputed election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power for a second time, Iran was facing difficult political and economic conditions. He added that when President Rouhani took office in 2013, Iran was struggling with 40 percent inflation and a 7 percent negative economic growth rate. "Meanwhile, political parties and the three branches of the government were suspicious of each other," Jahangiri added.

Jahangiri defended Rouhani's economic performance while also pointing out that political rivals persistently tried to obstruct his efforts. "If it were not for those obstructions, the JCPOA could have brought billions of dollars to Iran in foreign investment.” He did not explain how domestic opponents obstructed Rouhani’s work, but it would be safe to assume he was referring to hardliners who continued their provocative statements and actions.

Elsewhere in the interview, Jahangiri said some of Iran's top officials have not realized the extent of Iran's economic difficulties since the US pulled out from the nuclear deal in 2018. Although he did not name those officials, all Iranians know it was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has often denied the impact of the sanctions.

Jahangiri said that US sanctions aimed to put an end to the Islamic Republic with disseminating its economy. "That was when we focused on circumventing the sanctions," he said. Meanwhile, he praised the Rouhani administration for controlling the economy with spending less and only focusing on essential needs. The statement by Jahangiri is oblivious of the fact that at the same time Iran continued to spend billions of dollars on its missile program and military adventures in the Middle East.

He also claimed that Iran's "success" in confronting the coronavirus pandemic rivals the performance of other countries. He ignored the fact that Iran has not started public vaccination, while countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates have successfully vaccinated most of their citizens.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged economic losses but claimed Iran can compensate once it fixes issues in its foreign relations. He was probably referring to the impasse with the United States and long-standing tensions with Saudi Arabia and Israel, but he did not say what makes him optimistic about the future.

Jahangiri maintained that the United States is looking for a solution that would facilitate its return to the JCPOA but did not mention that the most important hindrance in this matter is Iran's reluctance to address the issue of its interventionism as well as its support for militant groups in the region.

However, he said that Iran needs another two months to work on forming a consensus about how to tackle the complicated issues of its foreign policy.

However, he said that Iran needs to follow risky but otherwise innovative methods to circumvent the sanctions in order to be able to export more oil.