According to President.ir, Dr. Rouhani, addressing the government cabinet on Wednesday, said, "We announced this message by saying that next year we will sell 2.3 million barrels of oil and next year the production capacity will be 2 million and 300,000 barrels per day. We have the power to sell this amount and we will sell.”

Rouhani stated: "This message does not mean that we should not sell oil. We will extract oil and sell it, but it is important that our current budget is not an oil-dependent budget. Oil is definitely used for the development of the country.”

"We have to be an exporting power globally, and without that, it is a weakening of national power," he said, adding, “If Iran was able to export about 10 million barrels of oil per day back in 2011 and 2012, they would not be able to impose sanctions on us and they would not have the power to impose sanctions on us.”

The President said: "If the export power of petrochemical and food products was twice as high as it is today, if the export of industrial and mineral products was three times as much as today, they would not have the power to impose sanctions on us; then the world market would be in your hands and you were in the world and they could not do away with you.”