None of Iran’s friends officially have bought even one barrel of oil during US sanctions, Iran’s Vice President Es’hq Jahangir said on Saturday as he also mocked domestic hardliners for claiming they could have defeated the sanctions.

Jahangiri who was speaking in the city of Yazd proclaimed that Iran is experiencing the last days of US sanctions imposed in 2018 after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal demanding fresh negotiations on a broad range of issues.

Jahangiri criticized Iran’s “compassionate and close friends” and other countries for not buying any oil from Iran. That would include Russia and China and perhaps even European countries that stopped all oil purchases once Trump imposed sanctions.

Iran’s crude exports dropped from more than two million dollars per day in 2017 to less than 200,000 in 2019. Some reports say clandestine exports have increases in recent months but there are no reliable figures to show how much oil is being shipped and who the buyers are.

Trump’s oil sanction, which went fully into effect in May 2019, deprived the Islamic Republic of it most important source of revenue, driving the economy into a deep recession, forcing it to spend its foreign currency reserves to provide for the basic needs of the population and triggering skyrocketing inflation.

The United States also imposed international banking sanctions on Iran, which hurt its trade and prevented hard-currency earnings from easily repatriated.

The only country that continued to officially buy oil was China that imports around 80,000 barrels a day, a fraction of its pre-sanction imports from Iran.

Russia, Tehran’s other supporter has made many promises of close economic cooperation, but Russian banks have avoided any dealing with Iran, fearful of third-country sanctions by the United States.

Jahangiri also criticized the opponents of President Hassan Rouhani, who have relentlessly criticized him for economic incompetence and inability to circumvent US sanctions. He said that one politician claimed during a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that he knows someone who can sell two million barrels per day. The government responded that if such a person exists, it is willing to immediately appoint him oil minister.

The Vice President added, “We were able to find ways to sell oil, with many dangers and risks and repatriate the money.” He also mocked corruption in secret oil deals during former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration when hardliners were in power.

Scandals that surfaced after 2015 showed that during international sanctions from 2011-2015 billions of dollars of secret oil and petrochemicals exports were embezzled by officials and middlemen close to the government.

Jahangiri called on officials to be vigilant against sanctions as he expressed hope that Iran is experiencing the last days of hardship.

President Joe Biden says he wants to return to the nuclear deal, which would entail the lifting of US sanctions. His administration has made small goodwill gestures but Iran is demanding all sanctions to be lifted before any talks on the nuclear issue.