Fars News and other Iranian media have run several articles boasting about Iran’s success at defeating US sanctions. Iran’s Javad Zarif also sounded pleased, arguing nothing will happen on September 20 or other days in which the US might try to push through new sanctions against Iran.While the US seemed to indicate sanctions could return, the UK, France and Germany indicate that UN sanctions relief will continue.
The US wants to trigger “snap back” sanctions but Iran believes US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has not gotten support for this action. Iran’s Fars News says this is the last chance US President Donald Trump has before the US election in November. In a sense Iran is mocking Washington and hinting that it has no concern about what the US might do next.
Iran has been under a US maximum pressure pressure campaign since 2018. It has lashed out attacking oil tankers in May and June last year and attacking Saudi Arabia in September. It has also used proxies to attack the US in Iraq, sent weapons to the Houthis in Yemen and precision guided munitions to Hezbollah via Syria.An Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz suffered some kind of sabotage in July and Iran has been concerned about this incident regarding its nuclear program.