US sanctions spark angry protests in Iran

THOUSANDS of Iranians chanted “death to America” at a rally in Tehran yesterday as the country’s leaders remained defiant in the last hours before fresh US sanctions came into force.

Students at the government-organised march in the capital burned pictures of US President Donald Trump and the US flag to mark the seizure of the US embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Anti-US rhetoric is familiar from the Iranian government, but relations between the two countries are at a particular low over the Trump administration’s hard line on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

After unilaterally pulling out of the deal intended to curb Iran’s nuclear capability earlier this year, the White House said it would reapply sanctions on the country’s energy, financial and shipping sectors.

Iranian leaders are defiant over the move, and have appeared confident Iran can absorb the impact of reduced oil sales. After initially promising to drive the country to zero exports of oil, the US has offered a waiver to eight buyers of Iranian crude, a move defended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed “disgraced the remnant of America’s prestige and that of liberal democracy”.

Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, also took to Instagram to respond to Mr Trump’s ‘Game of Thrones’-inspired meme with his own, reading: “I will stand against you.”

The rhetoric was in stark contrast to concerns voiced by Iranians, fearful over the impact of further sanctions on an already pressured economy.

“All the prices are going higher every day... I am scared. I am worried. I am desperate,” Pejman Sarafnejad (43), a Tehran elementary school teacher and father of three.

“I cannot even buy rice to feed my children or pay my rent.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)