ECHOES OF OLD HOSTILITIES

The reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran has reignited a combustible chapter in West Asias modern history, intertwining nuclear anxieties, regional conflict, and the perennial hostility between Tehran and Washington.

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The “snapback” mechanism, embedded in the 2015 nuclear accord, has once again penalised Iran for its uranium enrichment activities that now far exceed the agreed thresholds. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom triggered this mechanism before its expiry, citing Iran's noncompliance, even as Tehran argued that the deal was voided in 2018 when the United States unilaterally withdrew under Donald Trump. The move comes in the aftermath of Israel’s June war on Iran, a devastating conflict that saw Israeli and American strikes cripple nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan, destroying cascades of centrifuges and halting uranium enrichment in aboveground structures. The attacks, while temporarily slowing Iran's programme, have also hardened its defiance and bolstered its narrative of victimhood. Iranian leaders, hemmed in by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’ rejection of diplomacy with the US, have dismissed the sanctions as futile against the “determination” of their people, yet the country’s economy—already battered by inflation, currency collapse, and energy sanctions—will bear the brunt. The sanctions freeze Iranian assets abroad, curtail arms transactions, and penalise the ballistic missile programme, but more significantly, they once again polarise international alignments: Russia and China stand by Tehran, while the West tightens pressure, set