Iran's Khamenei taunts 'defeated' US after Trump reimposes sanctions

'America's goal has been to reestablish the domination it had, but it has failed,' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said America had failed to reassert its domination of Iran (Reuters)

The US has been “defeated” by Iran, the country’s supreme leader claimed ahead of the Trump administration’s reimposition of sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday America had failed to reassert its domination of Iran since the 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, state television reported.

“America’s goal has been to reestablish the domination it had, but it has failed. America has been defeated by the Islamic republic over the past 40 years,” it quoted Mr Khamenei as saying in a meeting with thousands of students.

Washington will on Monday reimpose far-reaching sanctions on Iran’s vital oil export and banking sectors to try to force Iran to curb its missile and regional activities and accept tougher restraints on its nuclear programme.

Having abandoned Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Donald Trump says he is trying to cripple Iran’s oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and its ballistic missile programme but its support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.

On Twitter, in a bizarre message designed to emphasise his “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran, Mr Trump included a photograph of himself modelled on a Game of Thrones poster with the headline: “Sanctions are coming November 5.”

“This part of the campaign is aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues it uses to spread death and destruction around the world,” secretary of state Mike Pompeo said.

Iran said it was not troubled over the reimposition of US sanctions, which target not only its vital oil and gas sector but also shipping, shipbuilding and banking industries.

“America will not be able to carry out any measure against our great and brave nation … We have the knowledge and the capability to manage the country’s economic affairs,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told state TV.

However, ordinary Iranians fear an even more painful squeeze, from businesses struggling to buy raw materials to the sick and elderly unable to afford life-saving medicines.

“I cannot even buy rice to feed my children or pay my rent,” said school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran.

The EU, France, Germany and Britain, parties to the nuclear agreement who are trying to keep it alive, said they regretted Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions. The EU is creating a special mechanism that would circumvent US financial sanctions on Iran.

The US is able to pressure other nations to stop buying Iranian oil under a 2012 law that allows the president to cut off foreign banks, including central banks, from the US financial system unless they significantly reduce purchases.

Additional reporting by agencies