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Eurasia
November 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Iran in “war situation” says Rouhani as heavy US sanctions kick in
bne IntelliNews
“We are in a war situation,” declared Iran’s Presi- dent Hassan Rouhani on November 5 shortly after Washington’s heaviest sanctions kicked in.
As Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in military manoeuvres taking place across a vast stretch of the country’s north, the president — who vowed that Iran would breach the sanctions — was also reported by The Associated Press as saying: “We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win.”
The second-phase sanctions target Iran’s oil, gas, petrochemical, shipping and banking industries, dealing a potentially crippling blow to an economy already plunged into recession and crisis by the first-phase sanctions that took effect on August 7. Those sanctions have for three months been undermining the country’s automotive sector, purchase or acquisition of US banknotes, trade in gold and other precious metals, graphite, alumin- ium, steel, coal, and software used in industrial processes, transactions related to the Iranian rial (IRR) and activities relating to Iran's issuance of sovereign debt.
The sanctions bring to an end all the economic benefits the Barack Obama administration grant- ed Tehran after the US and five other major pow-
Tehran woke up on November 5 to the toughest sanctions ever imposed by the US on the Iranian economy.
ers, along with Iran, signed the nuclear deal in late 2015. The accord is supposed to shield Iran from crippling sanctions in return for the Iranians limiting their enrichment of uranium to close off their potential road to the development of a nu- clear weapon. But, despite the strong protests of all the other signatories — Iran, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China — and with the vo- cal backing of Israel, Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the multilateral pact in May, determined to force further concessions on Iran’s role and activities in the Middle East.
Central to the new sanctions is an effort to gradu- ally force Iran’s lifeline oil exports to zero. But
in his latest comments, Rouhani, a pragmatic, centrist politician under pressure from hardliners to fight back hard against the American aggres- sion, said: “Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell.”
The US initially pushed hard to rapidly bring crude shipments down to zero, but on November 5, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that 180-day exemptions allowing for the continued importing of Iranian oil had been granted to eight countries — China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. However, the waivers have been granted on the condition that the countries endeavour to gradually end the pur- chasing of crude from Iran.