Alwaght- Immediately after announcement of lifting the international sanctions on Iran, which comes as an implementation of the nuclear accord reached between Iran and the P5+1group in July 2015, Washington has declared that it would continue imposing economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic this time targeting the country's long-range ballistic missiles development program. In response, Tehran has said that it would not negotiate its missiles program or any other case which are out of the agenda of the j o i nt work plan which has focused only on the nuclear case and does not cover other items.


The new US' sanctions have targeted five Iranian nationals and 11companies claimed to be involved in facilitating provision of Iran with parts used in its ballistic missiles.


Tehran has recently successfully test-fired the long-range ballistic missile Emad, which is seen as the very latest version in a series of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles produced by Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.


The question that rises is that why and under what pretext Washington has imposed new sanctions on Iran.


Answering this question would need referring to the following points:


1. The US sees Iran's development of its ballistic missiles program as posing threats to its national security and interests, as well as jeopardizing its allies' interests in West Asia region and in the world, including the Israeli regime's.


2. The US claims that Iran's proceeding with its ballistic missile tests is a violation of the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) resolution 1929, which was adopted on June 9, 2010 and demanded Tehran to cease its rocket testing. Washington is turning a blind eye to the UNSC's resolution 2231, adopted five years after the last one in July 2015, which revoked all of the limitations set in the 2010 resolution, allowing Iran to continue its missile tests.


3. By its decision to impose new sanctions on Iran, the US has intended to appease the Israeli regime which has called the nuclear deal between Tehran and the world's six powers as the worst ever agreement. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the nuclear talks which have yielded the nuclear accord, has repeatedly asked Washington and the regime's other Western allies to include an item in the nuclear deal's terms in order to block Iran's efforts for pursuing its ballistic rockets program.


4. The US thinks that development of Iran's ballistic missiles would endanger Washington's strategic projects in West Asia region, specifically its Greater (or New) Middle East, because missile power would strengthen the Islamic Republic's military capabilities, leading to Iran's increased amount of supports for the Axis of Resistance, which is thwarting the US plan.


5. The US fears the impact of Iran's ballistic missiles program on the future of its allies in the region, including the Israeli regime, especially that Washington is well aware of the potentials of Tehran's missiles, the technology of which has been used by the resistant movements like Lebanon's Hezbollah and the resistant Palestinian fractions during the two Israeli aggressions launched against south Lebanon in summer 2006 and also against Gaza Strip in Summer 2014.


6. Many of the observers believe that the aim of the new wave of Washington's Iran sanctions is to play down the significance of the historic success Iran has made by brokering the nuclear deal with the world's six powers, an agreement enabling Tehran ensure its right to have peaceful nuclear technology, as it paved the way for relieving the sanctions, which have lasted for over a decade.


7. Washington believed that Tehran would bow down to the West's demands concerning its positions on the regional issues, including the Palestinian case, but it became disappointed with its dreams unrealized after Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei has asserted that the Islamic Republic would never trade its principles with anybody no matter what the costs and sacrifices were. For this reason, Washington has decided to impose new sanctions on Iran with the excuse of the country's ballistic missiles program as a retaliatory and punitive measure against Tehran.


The analysts believe that the US administration, after failing to bring Tehran to knees through pressures and sanctions it has put against Iran for years as part of its efforts to set hurdles ahead of its advancements, has come up with the understanding that it was impossible to make Iran give in through sanctioning and through threatening to use military option about which the American administration has talked so much to gratify the Israeli regime while it knows that it is an essentially failed choice, as meanwhile, Iran has turned to an influential regional power while bearing all the pressures, and made gains through a soft power originating from its ideological and political stances on regional and global cases.


By AlWaght