US isolating itself by imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran: Scholar

President Hassan Rouhani has said that sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States have failed to weaken the Iranian nation’s will and this has been proven through incessant inauguration of development projects under the toughest sanctions.

Rouhani made the remarks in Tehran on Thursday during a ceremony held via video-link that featured inauguration of industrial and mining projects in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi and central Esfahan provinces.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi has condemned US sanctions against Iranian shipping companies and tankers, saying Iran will not give in to such pressure.

“We advise the American officials to stop the imposition of unilateral sanctions, as their illegal and unilateral sanctions are more against their allies and global trade than Iran,” Mousavi said on Wednesday.

He said that the fresh US sanctions are not different from those already in place against the Islamic Republic, as Washington once put sanctions on the entire Iranian nation and now is sanctioning Iranian citizens or officials individually.  

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, said, “The imposition of new US sanctions against Iranian shipping companies is meant to disrupt the transport of oil from Iran to Venezuelan ports. This is part of the US policy of applying ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran to force it to the negotiating table and accept an American mandated agreement to dismantle Iranian sovereignty and neuter its foreign policy.”

“Apparently, for the US, Iranian lives do not matter. If the sanctions are meant to coerce Iran into accepting US demands they have obviously not worked and there is no prospect that they will achieve that objective in the future. The sanctions thus have only one purpose, to make life as miserable for the Iranian people as possible in order to destabilize the country and foment domestic discord. This too has proved futile as the Iranian people have shown that they will not be bullied into submission,” he stated.

“The US policy of quarantining Iran is enforced by secondary sanctions against any country or company that violates US sanctions. This form of extraterritoriality has no legal grounds and goes against international law. It illustrates how the US is a rogue regime that sees itself above the law and as its sole arbiter,” the analyst said.

“As the US still has an inordinate amount of clout in terms of international finance and the global monetary system it can bully other nations into accepting its dictates. This, however, is forcing countries to find alternatives to the US-backed world economic structures fashioned after WW2. The more intransigent the US becomes and the more unilateral sanctions it imposes against Iran and other nations will only hasten the day when those institutions are either reformed or replaced,” he said.

“The US can continue with its unilateral policies, but sooner or later they will lead to a reversal of fortunes. It will be the US that will inevitably find itself isolated as the new, emerging multipolar world passes it by,” he noted.