Iran Shrugs Off New Sanctions
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

TEHRAN — The chief of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards shrugged off harsh new American sanctions that are the most sweeping since 1979, saying “the corps is ready to defend the ideals of the revolution more than ever before.”
Washington announced the sanctions yesterday targeting the Revolutionary Guards, which America accuses of supporting terrorism by backing Shiite militants in Iraq. The sanctions ban American dealings with the extensive network of businesses believed linked to the Guards — and put stepped-up pressure on international banks to cut any ties with those firms.
So far, the official Iranian response has been defiant.
Yesterday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called the new American measures “worthless and ineffective” and said they were “doomed to fail as before.”
General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said the sanctions tried to undermine the corps but “now as always, the corps is ready to defend the ideals of the revolution more than ever before.”
Iran’s economy is struggling, with dramatic price rises this year. The cost of housing and basic foodstuffs like vegetables have doubled or even quadrupled. The government also has imposed unpopular fuel rationing in an attempt to reduce expensive subsidies for imported gasoline.
China, a key ally of Iran, warned today that the sanctions could increase tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
“Dialogue and negotiations are the best approach to resolving the Iranian nuclear issue,” the ministry said. “To impose new sanctions on Iran at a time when international society and the Iranian authorities are working hard to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue can only complicate the issue.”
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel was due to visit China over the weekend to lobby for intensified U.N. sanctions against Iran, the Israeli Embassy said today.
Washington has already won two U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions. Chinese officials say China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, would not support further sanctions from the body.