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On the eve of new US sanctions on Iran's oil exports and financial system, thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran on Sunday to burn US flags and scoff at President Trump with cardboard effigies. cartoons.
The wave of anti-American sentiment, orchestrated by the Iranian government, was a demonstration of how the regime intends to use the latest set of punitive measures to bolster its support by channeling resistance into the United States. In Tehran, regime supporters see the new sanctions – the second set of restrictions following Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May – as a direct attack on their livelihoods .
"The more severe the sanctions become, the stronger we get," said Mehdi, a boys-only maths teacher at a rally, who attended the rally and recalled other difficult times, such as 39, a devastating eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s. "We are not afraid of new sanctions. We will win this war too, just like the Iran-Iraq war. "
Angering the crowd from a podium in front of the former US embassy in Tehran, Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, promised that Iran would overcome sanctions and the "psychological warfare" of the United States. .
"With the help of God, as well as the resistance of revolutionary believers, this latest weapon of the enemy – the economic war as well as the vast attacks of the American media against Iran – will eventually be defeated ", said Mr. Jafari, interrupting his speech. several times by quips and anti-US chants. Below him, a banner declared the theme of the rally: "We are far from being dishonored".
Jafari joined Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in recent days have also pledged to resist sanctions imposed by the United States. But it is not clear whether the country's leaders can associate this rhetoric with results.
The Iranian economy was already in trouble before the latest sanctions. Inflation hovers around 30%, the unemployment rate is double digits and the local currency loses value against the dollar at a historic rate.
The price of a gas tank has increased and, with the adoption of US sanctions against Iran, drivers could be even more worried at the pump. But that's not the whole story. Sarah Kent from WSJ explains why world oil prices are at the limit. Photo: Getty Images
Before the new US sanctions, which took effect Sunday in Washington around midnight, many of Iran's largest oil customers in Asia cut back on purchases, compounding misery.
The Trump administration has announced that it would grant waivers to eight countries allowing them to continue to import Iranian oil and not be penalized by the new sanctions, but they remain under pressure to find money. other suppliers. Oil exports accounted for about half of Iran's total exports last year, according to OPEC figures.
Iran is holding a rally every November 4 to celebrate the takeover of the US embassy 39 years ago by revolutionaries who took hostage 52 Americans for more than a year, precipitating an international crisis.
While it is usually a forum for the regime's relentless supporters to express their anger, the coincidence with the application of sanctions this year has made it a more powerful meeting place for supporters of the regime, many of whom are students and members of the volunteer militia Basij.
Addressing directly to Mr. Trump, Mr. Jafari, commander of the IRGC, warned the president not to threaten Iran with military measures, suggesting that any US aggression would encounter the same kind of defeat that a force sent in 1980 to rescue the hostages of the American embassy. Eight Americans died in this sloppy mission.
Supporters of the regime at the rally burned large American and Israeli flags, some of whose burning pieces fell dangerously close to people on the crowded street. Many have held banners or placards denouncing the United States.
Write to Asa Fitch at [email protected]
