The United Nations has reimposed sweeping sanctions on Iran after European powers accused Tehran of breaching the 2015 nuclear accord. The decision, triggered by Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, restores restrictions that had been lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), once hailed as a landmark effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, according to “TOLOnews”.
The return of sanctions is expected to strike deep into Iran’s fragile economy—cutting oil and gas exports, blocking access to international banking, and raising the cost of basic goods. For many Iranians, the impact is already tangible. “For six months I’ve wanted to buy a mobile phone,” said one Tehran resident. “Every time I go, the price has gone up. What was 12 or 13 million tomans is now 15 million.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Washington of engineering the pressure campaign. “The U.S. wants a weak and submissive Iran,” he said in a televised address. “Today it is the nuclear issue; tomorrow it will be something else. They do not want a strong Iran. We accepted inspectors, we offered transparency on enriched uranium, but they came with new excuses.”
Russia denounced the sanctions move, framing it as geopolitical sabotage. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged that the West had “exposed its desire to extract unilateral concessions from Tehran through blackmail and pressure,” insisting the sanctions lacked legitimacy under international law.
For Iran, already battling inflation and unemployment, the sanctions’ reinstatement tightens a vise that ordinary citizens have lived under for decades. “We’ve been struggling with sanctions since the revolution,” another Iranian said. “It never ends.”
As diplomatic mistrust deepens, the revival of UN sanctions signals not just a setback for the JCPOA, but also a new chapter in the long, bitter standoff between Iran and the West.
