Istanbul | The reimposition of sanctions against Iran on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) has ushered in what is likely to be a protracted period of heated rhetoric and stand-off, as the Trump administration threatened more pressure and Tehran warned that it can ramp up its nuclear program again, Middle East experts said.
In a preview of the war of words that is likely to escalate, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to continue selling oil in defiance of the sanctions. As state television aired footage of military forces staging war exercises, Mr Rouhani said the country was in an “economic war situation”.
“We will proudly break the sanctions,” he said during a meeting of government officials in the Iranian capital.
In Washington, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “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.”
It will take many weeks or months before the effectiveness of the US administration’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran can be judged. But what already is clear is that the renewed sanctions will be greeted by threats hurled between Washington and Tehran as the two governments grow more confrontational.
“We should look at today as the first day of an escalating maximum-pressure campaign, not a new status quo,” said Richard Goldberg, an adviser at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. “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.”
The sanctioning of hundreds of Iranian individuals, companies and organisations was the final result of Donald Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from the nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Read the article by Erin Cunningham and Carol Morello in the Australian Financial Review.