Facing growing criticism as pressure mounts to deliver tangible results from the lifting of sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani defended the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers in an April 19 speech.

“When the administration took over, Islamophobia and Iranphobia were at a peak and the country was facing sanctions,” Rouhani said, reminding the crowd the conditions in Iran when he took over from hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Inflation, economic downturn, unemployment and lack of stability in the markets created numerous doubts in the public about the future of the country and the economy.”

To those who have criticized the nuclear deal, Rouhani said, “It is interesting to me that some want to say that the Iranian nation and the negotiators were not victorious and it was the Americans and Zionists who were victorious.” He said that the nuclear deal has had many achievements, saying that no one could have imagined that all the United Nations Security Council resolutions against Iran would at once be “thrown into the trash bin of history.”

Indirectly addressing criticism from the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, Rouhani said, “For those who question what the nuclear deal has achieved, it must be said that the nuclear deal recorded a political and legal honor for the history of Iran.” On April 5, Jafari had criticized Rouhani for trying to use the momentum of the nuclear deal to implement other domestic and international policies, asking, “What result has the deal had that we would accept other deals?”