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'Iran is the most experienced country in the world [at] handling sanctions. I don't believe any other country in this region has the experience, capacity or scale to resist against sanctions,' Mousavian, who specializes in the effects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers told Middle East Eye (MEE) news website.
The US sanctions, set to come into effect on 5 November, will hit Iran's petroleum sales and transport activities, among other areas.
That includes the country's shipping and port operations, as well as banking transactions carried out by the National Iranian Oil Company and the Central Bank of Iran.
Some US sanctions were already reimposed on Iran in August, shortly after Washington pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May.
Mousavian told MEE the sanctions would do nothing to deter Iran's conventional weapons industry.
'The Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s pushed Iran to go for self-sufficiency on the production of conventional weapons. Today, Iran is the most powerful country in the region for producing conventional arms – from tanks to airplanes to jet fighters, missiles, everything,' he said.
'I don't believe any other country in this region has the experience, capacity or scale to resist against sanctions,' he said.
Mousavian said Iran 'would have a hard economic time' as a result of the sanctions and may take a small hit, given the current relatively high price of oil on the global market, at about $ 63 per barrel.
Still, he said he expected Iranian leaders to portray the situation as a 'big win' because they hope to wean the country's economy off oil.
'It is a very important objective of Iran's political security to manage an economy minus oil,' Mousavian told MEE.
It also appears unlikely that the sanctions will stop Iran’s involvement in other parts of the region, which has been one of the US's stated goals for reimposing the harsh economic measures.
'Iran has been at the same level of regional activity as it was before these sanctions started.'
On Friday, the US granted waivers to eight Iranian oil importers, including Iraq, Turkey, India, China, South Korea and Japan.
Several of these countries depend partially on Iranian oil, including Turkey, which imports a quarter of its 830,000 barrels per day from its Iranian neighbor, Bloomberg reported.
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