TEHRAN -- Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, says the U.S. sanctions against Iran is not something new and the recent move by Washington to penalize companies that do business with Tehran will not seem to affect Iran.

“There are already extensive sanctions by the United States, so it is unlikely that these additional matters will make a difference,” Zunes said.

“Furthermore, Iran has normal trade relations with plenty of other countries, so such unilateral initiatives will not have too negative an impact,” he told the Mehr news agency in an interview on Saturday, September 30.

The political scientist maintains that U.S. has hypocritical approach toward the issue of nuclear energy, human rights, and democracy and the critics of Iranian government admit it. “Even critics of the current government within Iran tend to recognize that the U.S. position is hypocritical and full of double-standards, since the U.S. supports governments in the region which have far worse human rights records and have already developed nuclear weapons.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has applauded the approval of the sanctions bill by the Senate which has been signed into law by President George W. Bush.

On the Zionist lobby’s influence on the move, he said, “The support of the bill by the pro-Israel lobby was one factor in its passage, but it was probably not the most important one.

He believes that the U.S. sees Iran as the main obstacle to its hegemonic policies in the Middle East.

“The United States desires hegemony in the region and Iran is seen as an obstacle to that hegemony, which is why the United States wants to see the Iran weakened or its government replaced.”

“The United States has had strategic and economic interests in Persian Gulf region before the State of Israel even existed. So, the pro-Israel lobby was an ally of the Bush administration in pushing through this measure, but it was not the primary instigator.”