Tehran defiant as UN passes tough Iran nuclear sanctions

Iran has dismissed the impact of UN sanctions dating to 2006, which have targeted an array of institutions – from banks to universities, many with links to the powerful Revolutionary Guard – that are connected to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

Sanctions have not so far forced Iran to comply with the key international demand: a suspension of its uranium enrichment program until the IAEA is satisfied Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran denies wanting to make a nuclear bomb.

Sanctions helping Iran?

Iranian officials sometimes crow that sanctions have heightened the country's self-sufficiency. In addition to nuclear sanctions, the US has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the pro-Western Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

“Iranian state media [has been] playing it up, with Ahmadinejad literally saying ‘bring it on,’ says a young Iranian professional who left Iran a few days ago, and asked not to be named. “They are saying: ‘This is development for us; we’ve gotten so far [despite past sanctions].’ And to be honest, we have.”

That can-do spirit stems from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The men who now constitute Iran’s hard-line leadership believe that they repelled a 1981 invasion from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which received US, Soviet, and European support over eight years of war, through ingenuity and faith.

“They used all their power, [and brought] all their resources to the battlefield to defeat or weaken the Islamic Republic, and what was the result?” Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in a speech last Friday. “The world saw with amazement the emerging of the Islamic Republic with a much, much stronger defensive military capability."

“Whatever arm they’ve cut off [with sanctions], we’ve grown two; that’s the Iranian way,” says the professional. “State media was able to play this very well…. The public doesn’t know what [sanctions] cover, doesn’t remember what it covers, doesn’t know the effects – it just knows the US is bullying us.”

Both Brazilian and Turkish ambassadors, explaining their no votes before the council, said further sanctions would not convince Iran to halt its nuclear programs, and were more likely to have the opposite effect.

But US Ambassador Susan Rice said the sanctions were “aimed squarely at the nuclear ambitions” of Iran, and provided “important new tools.” The purpose was to “change the calculation of the leadership of Iran."

“The animosity between Iran and the US – and the depth of it – has become quite clear now,” says the journalist in Tehran. “Khamenei’s speech [last Friday] clearly indicated what we already knew, that there will never be any mending of ties with the US, simply because [the Islamic Republic] was founded on the principle of US defiance. He clearly said: 'If we do anything that appeals to the US and the West, it means we have done something wrong and we should rethink our actions.' "

Related:

• Syria boosts ties with Iran
• Iran nuclear fuel swap deal: What it involves, and how it will affect sanctions push
• Ahmadinejad warns West not to miss last Iran nuclear 'opportunity'

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