Iranian experts downplay effects of US sanctions

Experts have observed that contrary to the goals which the US expects to achieve by renewing its sanctions against Iran, it will only have a limited effect on Tehrans economy.

Washington re-introduced the first round of sanctions in August. The next round, which targets the country's energy sector among other things, is slated to take effect on November 5, Press TV reported.

"Iran has been sanctioned for more than 40 years. It is not something new," said Seyyed Hossein Moussavian, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator and Middle East policy specialist at Princeton University.

"Iran is the most experienced country in the world (at) handling sanctions. I don't believe any other country in this region has the experience, capacity or scale to resist against sanctions," he added.

Moussavian, however, admitted that Iran "would have a hard economic time" as a result of the sanctions.

"It is a very important objective of Iran's political security to manage an economy minus oil," he added.

The sanctions would do nothing to deter Iran's conventional weapons industry, he added.

"The Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s pushed Iran to go for self-sufficiency in production of conventional weapons. Today, Iran is the most powerful country in the region for producing conventional arms - from tanks to airplanes to jet fighters, missiles, everything," he said.

The US exited a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran in May and threatened to reinstate all sanctions that had been lifted under the accord, Press TV said.

Other parties to the deal -- the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany -- have collectively censured the US withdrawal, stressing that the agreement has been ratified in the form of a UN Security Council, and thus the US departure violates international law.

Kenneth Katzman, a senior Iran analyst at Congressional Research Service, which conducts research for the US Congress, also ruled that the sanctions cannot diminish Tehran's regional role.

"There's no observable linkage between sanctions and Iran's economic performance and its regional operations.

"Iran has been at the same level of regional activity as it was before these sanctions started," he added.

--IANS

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