Iran holds military drills as US sanctions kick back in
‘WAR SITUATION’ President Rohuani says ‘we are confronting a bullying enemy’
TEHRAN: Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions on Monday with air defence drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani the nation faces a “war situation,” raising Mideast tensions as America’s maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold.
The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While for now not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to threaten that could resume at any time faster than before.
The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran’s vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anaemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. “Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell,” Rouhani vowed on Monday as the sanctions kicked in.
Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military maneuvers underway across a vast stretch of the country’s north. It included surfaceto-air missiles shooting down a drone. The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Iranian army Gen. Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the exercise.
Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. “We are in the war situation, “Rouhani said. “We are in the economic war situation. We are con- fronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win.”
He further stepped up the rhetoric, comparing Iran’s situation in the 1980s war against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the current one and President Donald Trump’s move to reinstate US sanctions. “Yesterday, Saddam was in front us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win,” he said.
Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 1,45,000 to one US dollar, down from when it traded 40,500 to $1 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue.
Rouhani separately said leaders from “four powers” met with Iran on the sidelines of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to try to save the deal, including a possible meeting with Trump.