The EU released a list of 66 firms and persons affected by the latest sanctions against Iran for their involvement in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activists. The list includes the Melli Bank, the Mellat Bank, and even Bimeh Iran Insurance Company and textile giant Nassaji Mazandaran. Despite increasing propaganda about the “ineffectiveness of the sanctions” and threatening to take actions such as dismissing Britain’s ambassador from Iran or utilizing their destructive influence in other countries, Islamic Republic’s officials continue to announce their readiness to negotiate with the west and insist on shipping their uranium stockpile from Tehran to Turkey. Meanwhile, the hardline Kayhan daily, which operates under the supreme leader’s supervision, warned of military threats and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “predicted” two wars in the region within the next three months, despite insisting that sanctions are ineffective and negotiations are necessary.

As the EU announced details of its latest sanctions measures against the Islamic Republic, in a defiant move Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled for several hours to the Asaluyeh industrial zone to boast about “Iran’s unprecedented progress over the past year” and repeat his readiness to start negotiations.

Ahmadinejad uttered these statements while less than two weeks ago, the Khatam al-Anbiya brigade [of the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps, IRGC], which currently is the main investor in the Asaluyeh and Southern Pars industrial zones, halted its projects on phases15 and 16 of the Southern Pars oil and gas field, blaming the “west’s oppressive sanctions,” according to a statement.

Aside from his statements, Ahmadinejad made several predictions in an interview with the state-run Press TV network. He claimed, for example, that he has received repeated requests from former and current US presidents George Bush and Barack Obama to engage in negotiations.

According to the website Aftab, Ahmadinejad told Press TV, “I announce here, they have decided to carry out operations against at least two countries in the region within the next three months. It is clear that all these games are to support the Zionist regime.”

He told the English language channel, “This logic whereby they think that they can force us into negotiations by passing resolutions was defeated from the start. We have always been negotiating and never shut down negotiations. The sanctions discourse belongs to defeated and weak people. If we say that the sanctions are ineffective, that doesn’t mean that was is going to break out. I said four thousand resolutions; they issued three resolutions, and to escape those they had to issue a fourth resolution against Iran. To escape that resolution they would issue a fifth resolution also.”

Meanwhile, the Fars news agency, which is close to the security apparatus, published interviews with several “experts,” most of whom are affiliated with the Student Basij organization, to affirm the necessity of blocking the Hormuz straits in response to western military aggression against Iran.