Iran to continue nuclear, missile development despite sanctions – Official

Tabnak – By imposing a new round of sanctions against Iran, the United States is now seeking the policy of maximizing pressures on the Islamic Republic to break its resistance in the international arena. However, on the one hand Iranian officials emphasize the country will continue to grow despite the sanctions and on the other hand, experts express doubt over the real impacts of sanctions.

In this vein, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says sanctions will fail to stop the country's progress in different fields.

"In spite of sanctions, Iran's achievements in various fields, particularly in the defense and missile industry sectors as well as the nuclear industry have astonished the world," Salehi told IRNA on Sunday.

He added that the United States has been pursuing the policy of imposing sanctions on the Iranian nation since the victory of the Islamic Revolution some 40 years ago, emphasizing that sanctions were nothing new for Iran.

Iran's nuclear chief noted that the country has managed to achieve great success despite all kinds of pressures, restrictions, eight years of Iraqi-imposed war and crippling sanctions.

The AEOI chief emphasized that the Iranian nation relied on its own capabilities despite all the sanctions, saying Iran's long-range missiles and nuclear gains have become famous in the world.

Meanwhile, only days after the administration of US President Donald Trump restored sanctions against Iran, speculations are emerging among analysts that the country would eventually be able to find ways to dodge them in cooperation with its trading partners.

"There will always be both overt and covert activities to work around sanctions, to dodge sanctions or evade them," Dan Wager, a global sanctions expert at the consulting firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions, was quoted by the National Public Radio (NPR) as saying. "That's something that's gone on for a very long time."

Wager specifically mentioned Iran’s ability to procure aircraft parts and components — something Iran critically needs to keep its aging airplanes working – during the years it was under global sanctions until 2016.

Other analysts emphasized in their interviews with the NPR that it would be trickier to work around oil sanctions because the crude has to be transported by large tankers on open waters. But Iran still found ways to do it under past rounds of international sanctions, according to Peter Harrell, an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington, DC.

Harrell said energy-hungry nations are willing to risk sanctions that could reduce their access to US markets. He said the countries could use small companies or banks to do the transactions.

The administration of US President Donald Trump launched the second wave of sanctions against Iran from November 5 in which a universal ban on the country’s oil exports is a primary objective. US officials have already said the sanctions would be meant to bring down Iran’s oil exports to zero.