On Monday, the United States’ reimposed economic sanctions against Iran, which had been removed under Obama after the Iran nuclear deal, went into effect. Iran is now defying the sanctions and threatening to restart its nuclear program.

The Washington Post reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a meeting with government officials, “We will proudly break the sanctions.” Rouhani cited that the nation is in an “economic war situation.” The sanctions target Iranian banks and oil companies. However, since major economic sectors were excluded, some political scientists they were designed to work as threats.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated, “The Iranian regime has a choice. It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble.”

Richard Goldberg, an adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, “We’re going to see an enormous amount of pressure brought to bear on the regime, to the point where it may have to consider negotiating with the Trump administration or the regime will collapse.”

All but eight nations will implement the sanctions. Among the eight nations are China and India, which are Iran’s biggest oil customers and will continue to buy from them.

Rouhani said, “The fact that the U.S. has exempted eight countries from the sanctions after they threatened to bring Iran oil exports to zero, isn’t this a victory for us? And isn’t this a retreat for the United States?”

But many Iranians are still concerned, and voiced their disapproval on social media through the hashtag, #TargetingOrdinaryIranians.

The Foreign Minister of Islamic Republic of Iran, Javad Zarif, shared on Twitter that the United States “defied the UN top court & Security Council by reimposing sanctions on Iran that target ordinary people.”

While European countries settled alongside the U.S., the European Union is trying to create a “special purpose vehicle” to resume trade with Iran. Some critics of the U.S. are also accusing the country of enforcing an imperialist order in the Middle East of punishing Iran for defying U.S. control of the region.