"The nuclear projects are completed; do not bother to interfere in this matter." - Ahmadinejad

It took the clerical regime four days to react to the U.S. designation of the regime's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). In a statement issued by its permanent mission to the United Nations, the regime complained that by designating the IRGC and other agencies, the United States had in fact targeted the regime in its entirety.

A week later, the mullahs' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reacted angrily to the move by the U.S. "You can sanction us, but we will rapidly turn these into opportunities," he said, adding, "We did not have any trade with U.S. companies and there is nothing to be stopped now, but their intention is to stop European countries cooperating with Iran." He emphasized that the regime would continue with its nuclear projects. He boasted, "The Iranian nuclear project is completed, do not bother to interfere in this matter."
In a statement on November 2, the IRGC responded to the U.S. sanctions, describing it as "a desperate move to calm its satanic wrath and to cure its deep wound."
Reza Rahmani Fazli, a high ranking official at the regime's Supreme National Security Council, remarked, "The U.S. is pursuing three scenarios: first, it is trying to isolate Iran politically and then cause certain internal developments; second, it is attempting to inflict political pressure and sanctions with the same aim; And finally, in addition to raising the pressure and imposition of sanctions, it is making military threats to cause domestic changes." He therefore expressed concern over increasingly widespread social protests across the country.
Ali Larijani, who was recently removed as the head of the regime's nuclear negotiating team, and who was dubbed by some in the West as being a moderate, threatened in his usual style, by saying, "The new sanctions might force us to review our cooperation with the IAEA."
The state-affiliated Etemad-Melli daily captured the demoralized mood of the clerical regime by calling the U.S. move a "psychological war" even greater than an actual war.