U.S.-Led Sanctions Begin in Iran
Yesterday, President Barack Obama‘s executive order, implementing a new round of sanctions against Iran, took effect. Late last year, Congress passed a bill seeking to intensify pressure on Iran’s economy, including the central bank, and allowing US institutions to freeze all property and interests of the Iranian government. In a letter to Congress, Obama stated the new sanctions were justified “particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks,” but he did not implement the sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with the Iranian central bank or other finance firms.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said the new sanctions are ”an antagonistic move … a psychological war which has no impact” and “will not have any impact on our nuclear course.” An Iranian news source reported Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi saying the new sanctions are “ineffective,” and is determined to retaliate against against the oil ban by cutting ”export of oil to certain European countries.”
Natasha Bahrami and Trita Parsi, from the Boston Review, write that imposing sanctions aimed at collapsing the regime and bringing about democratic change is a misconception. Bahrami and Parsi cite previous work that indicates broad economic sanctions can increase the likelihood of military conflict, and that the threat, or use, of military force resolved the issues, instead of imposing sanctions. “Of the 35 states that have transitioned to democracy since 1955, all but one of them did so without the use of broad economic sanctions.” John Bolton, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, believes the sanctions will not work, as they are not adequate enough to stop the Iranian nuclear program, and said “the only other option is to take pre-emptive military action to break Iran’s program.” The sanctions have started to take effect on food staples in Iran, as buyers defaulted on payments for about 200,000 tonnes of rice from India.
