THE U.S. SANCTION, MILITARY THREAT AND IRAN'S CORRESPONDING MEASURES

    The United States was the most firm country to push sanction proposals in the UN Security Council for a long time. Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979 was a big blow to the U.S. interests and its confidence in the Mideast region, therefore these two countries almost have no trust in each other for a long time. The U.S. believed Tehran's final object of developing nuclear technology was to make nuclear weapons to destroy the current international political and economic system, and no explanations from Iran can make it give up this idea.

    Since Iran's rejection to compromise by Aug. 31, U.S.ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton immediately started persuading other countries to act together on a draft resolution to impose sanctions against Iran.

    Facing the U.S. sanctions threat, Iranian officials did not retreat from their tough position. President Ahmadinejad and chief nuclear negotiator Larijani have warned that Tehran may "reconsider its cooperation policy with IAEA" and may "recast its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)". Iran's Vice Foreign Minister Sheikh Attar also said the global oil-consuming nations' interests would be harmed if UN decided to impose sanctions, because oil was one of Iran's powerful weapons to resist the Western bluster.

    The possibility of military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities has never been removed from the desks of U.S. and Israeli leaders. Since the war between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerilla broke out this summer, and Israeli threat to launch pre-emptive attacks on its nuclear facilities,Tehran became increasingly impatient and stewed.

    Following by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's commentsthat U.S. global interests may get revenged if it launches an attack on the Islamic republic, Iranian armed forces launched three large scale military maneuvers in the country and the Gulf region this year. According to army commanders, the drills'purpose was to "show Iran's capability and determination to resistany possible aggression", which clearly referred to the U.S. and Israel.

    During these exercises, Iran test fired several models of whatit called "advanced missiles", including "Shahab-3" with a range of 2,000 km which could cover Israel and U.S. military base in the Mideast.