President Rouhani declared that "this economic war has been imposed on us but we will stand... Trump is seeking to separate people from the system so that we abandon our independence and be isolated, but he didn't succeed and will not be successful in the future". "What the U.S. is seeking through bringing up the topic of negotiation is abandoning nuclear technology", he continued, adding that "the other goal of the U.S. is to decrease the role of Iran in the region". Referring to Secretary of State Pompeo's regional trip, Rouhani remarked that "the U.S. wants Iran to step aside in the region so that it can dominate the region; this is impossible to do. The U.S. Secretary of State will continue to fail, even if he tours the region for ten weeks".