Tehran, Iran – Despite opposition from Russia and China, the West is now imposing sanctions on Iran once more after a decade.
After the European signatories of Iran’s landmark nuclear agreement invoked the “snapback” mechanism of the landmark agreement to reactivate them, the sanctions were automatically reinstated at midnight GMT on Sunday.
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As most of the 90 million people who pay the price in the upcoming months will have to bear the brunt of them, including an arms embargo, asset freezes, travel bans, and nuclear, missile, and banking sanctions.
The sanctions must be imposed using nonmilitary means and are binding on all member states.
Some are concerned about Iran’s tumultuous regional situation, which Israel and the United States carried out in June, which left more than 1, 000 people dead and billions of dollars in damage.
Some Iranians are concerned that Israel will use the sanctions as an excuse to attack once more because it used the world’s nuclear watchdog’s resolution to prop up a war that both Israeli officials and the general public praised.
Angry consumers, anxious markets
The sanctions’ increasing isolation of Iran and market reactions on Sunday demonstrated economic anxiety.
On the second day of the working week, the Iranian rial’s exchange rate was only slightly volatile in Tehran’s open currency market, which was close to 1.3 million US dollars.
The rial’s value dropped to a record low from 1.006 million to $1.06 when the snapback process was started by European powers a month ago.
The 35-year-old Rouzbeh, who sells electric motors from China and other nations, said, “Things are not looking stable at all.”
He told Al Jazeera, “Just like with the past few years, when the dollar has been going up, imported goods will become more expensive and scarce.”
“Some people here stop all sales until there is some price stability.” Others increase prices by taking advantage of the situation. Sales decline when prices rise because people’s purchasing power declines.
Tehran’s hardliners appeared content with the new UN sanctions, likely because it signals the end of a nuclear deal, which they had previously vehemently opposed because it allegedly constituted “pure loss.”
Saeed Jalili, a long-term unsuccessful presidential candidate and ultraconservative member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted a video of his speech last week in which he criticized the nuclear deal and its relationship with the West.
Without going into specifics, he said, “Today we must neutralize the enemy’s excessive demands and stop his threats.”
The Iranian judiciary stated in a statement on Saturday that it was monitoring online activity related to the news of the snapback and that it would punish those who violate it. It claimed that a number of unnamed websites and Telegram channels have been accused of violating their reputation by publishing “provocative content about price increases.”
Reformist Shargh daily mourning the “death” of the nuclear deal, and Donya-e-Eqtesad, Iran’s largest economic daily, highlighting that inflation is at its highest level in 28 months, at more than 40%, were Iranian newspapers’ reflections on Sunday.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was alleged to have “economic growth was positive without negotiations, and negative with negotiations.”
Talks with the US were ruled out by Khamenei last week.
The snapback mechanism was abused by who?
In exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Iran was required to adhere to strict restrictions set forth in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was established as a sanction for Iran.
Iran, China, and Russia allege that the West abused the mechanism, which is set to expire on October 18th, because Donald Trump, the president of the United States, unilaterally withdrawn from JCPOA in 2018 and imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran despite it continuing.
Tehran maintains that it will never seek a bomb despite the fact that it only began gradually abusing the curbs a year later.
Iran’s uranium enrichment rate was up to 60%, despite numerous tit-for-tat measures, as claimed by Israel and the US as the justification for the attack.
Since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was denied access to the majority of its nuclear facilities after the war, it is unclear how much of its high-enriched uranium will end up in and what exactly will happen to its underground nuclear facilities.
attempting to stop the crisis
The US and its three European allies, known as the E3, have put pressure on Iran while denying its requests for an interim agreement, as well as expressing their disapproval of its alleged supply of explosive drones to Russia for the Ukraine war, which they see as the Islamic Republic’s weakest in decades.
China and Russia’s repeated requests to defer snapback and a last-ditch UN Security Council vote on Friday were also rejected.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz went as far as to claim that Israel was “doing the dirty work” by attacking Iran in June.
Araghchi, who the West repeatedly accused of not representing Iran as a legitimate representative, claimed on Sunday that the West “buried” diplomacy and opted for bullying.
He resisted, adding that Iran believes the UNSC resolution that underlies the nuclear deal is about to expire in October, as originally anticipated.
China and Russia appeared to be on the same page last month when they claimed the move lacked a legal foundation.
Moscow retaliated loudly on Friday, telling the UNSC meeting in New York that any resuscitation of sanctions was “null and void,” even threatening to “seriously reconsider our relations” with the UN Secretariat.
A $25 billion memorandum of understanding was signed between Russia and Iran on Thursday to construct several nuclear power plants there.
Despite US sanctions, China has continued to be the top importer of Iranian oil despite receiving significant discounts from a remote Iran.
By engaging in significant negotiations with Iran, will the two world powers, or any other of Iran’s limited allies, run the risk of putting themselves in danger of secondary UN sanctions.
“US policy assigned to Israel”
The Iranian-based Center for Strategic Studies’ Ali Akbar Dareini claimed that the US and Europe “showed utmost animosity” and “slaughtered” the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Since Trump’s election, he told Al Jazeera, “The US has delegated its Iran policy to Israel.”
In the past, the US fought against Iran, but Christian evangelists and Zionists, including the US ambassador to Israel, helped persuade Trump to join the Israeli aggression against Iran, according to Akbar Dareini.
Iran has options, he said, including stopping IAEA monitoring of Iran’s nuclear facilities, leaving the NPT, or halting implementation of all NPT commitments without formally withdrawing, as it has done for years.
