DUBAI (Reuters) -Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the reimposition of global sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme is “not like the sky is falling” as he headed home on Saturday from New York where he failed to convince Western powers to delay the move.
Iran’s immediate reaction to the resumption of United Nations sanctions came with the announcement earlier on Saturday it was recalling its ambassadors to Britain, France and Germany for consultations, but it has warned a harsher response awaits.
“It is not like the sky is falling. If we are weak they will crush us. But if we are united, there is no fear from this crisis,” Pezeshkian told Iranian state television before leaving New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly.
All U.N. sanctions on Iran are due to be restored overnight, after the three European powers, known as the E3, triggered a 30-day process accusing Tehran of violating a 2015 deal meant to prevent it from building a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
It has warned Western countries they will face “serious consequences” for restoring the sanctions, but Pezeshkian has also said Iran has no intention of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Russia and China mounted a last-ditch effort at the U.N. Security Council on Friday to delay the sanctions snap back, warning it could prompt escalation in the Middle East, but only four of the 15 council members supported their draft resolution.
Meanwhile, Iran’s rial currency continued to decline over fears of new sanctions. The rial fell to 1,123,000 per U.S. dollar, a new record low, on Saturday, from about 1,085,000 on Friday, according to foreign exchange websites, including Bon-bast.com.
The return of the U.N. sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans will mean further trouble for the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy, which is already labouring under a separate list of U.S. sanctions. European sanctions will resume next week.
The returning U.N. sanctions will also include an arms embargo, a ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing and a ban on activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear programme has already been set back by Israeli airstrikes in June that pounded major atomic facilities as well as targeting military bases and individuals involved in the nuclear programme.
It remains unclear how far the strikes succeeded in derailing Iran’s nuclear work, which Tehran says is purely for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity, but which Western countries believe is aimed at building a bomb.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Toby Chopra)
