Sanctions: The ultimate power exercise

Opinion Policy Analysis by Roa Daher, Staff Writer

October 14th, 2020

Ever since President Carter imposed the first United States sanctions on Iran in November of 1979, the US has been using sanctions as a tool to control outcomes and punish key players, especially Iran, in the Middle East. The latest such developments occurred in late September, as the Trump Administration began considering a new set of penalties that would target the only industry in Iran not completely annihilated by existing sanctions— the financial sector. In the proposed sanctions that are still under review, the Iranian financial sector would be added under Executive Order 13902 that was signed earlier this year and placed additional sanctions on different sectors of the Iranian economy like textiles and coal; however, it is unclear whether these proposed sanctions will be successfully implemented given Trump’s infection with COVID-19 and the proximity of Election Day. The significance of these proposed sanctions cannot be overstated, as they target the 14 banks that have managed to escape sanctions so far, thus cutting Iran from its sole connection to global financial markets. 

The United States also blacklisted two former Lebanese government ministers affiliated with Hezbollah, Yusuf Finyanus and Ali Hassan Khalil, for ‘enabling’ the Iran-backed group and engaging in governmental corruption at the expense of the Lebanese people. One week later, Arch Consulting and Meamar Construction both faced sanctions for being owned, controlled, or directed by Hezbollah, and Hezbollah Executive Council official Sultan Khalifah Asaad was placed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) list of sanctioned individuals because of his ties to both companies. This is the first move of many, according to senior State Department official David Schenker, as more and more Lebanese politicians will see the same fate due to their ties to Hezbollah and their involvement and active participation in the rampant corruption that has plagued the country for decades. While Hezbollah itself has been the subject of an increasing number of sanctions from the United States for years, in an effort to weaken them and starve them of funding, there is an ongoing expansion towards Hezbollah’s allies and other cooperating politicians and institutions within the country. 

In addition to the increasingly intensifying sanctions that Iran has faced from the United States, it has also been the subject of several sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council; some of the most significant resolutions adopted have been related to halting Iran’s nuclear weapons development program and a weapons embargo on Iran that prevents the export and supply of weapons. These resolutions were adopted because of the IAEA’s inability to confirm that there were no undeclared nuclear activities occurring in Iran, despite an investigation that lasted for three years, and because of Iranian ties to groups like Hezbollah. The weapons embargo expires on the 18th of this month, meaning that Iran will be able to supply and purchase weapons from other countries; in response to the imminent expiration date of the weapons embargo, the United States proposed an indefinite extension of the weapons embargo back in August. The proposal was rejected by the United Nations Security Council, where only the Dominican Republic voted with the US, 11 countries abstained from voting, and Russia and China voted against the proposal. Despite the United States’ defeat, Trump persisted. Not only did he persist, but he decided to announce the embargo’s extension by imposing sanctions on 27 individuals and entities including nuclear scientists and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. While announcing the sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that the United Kingdom, France, and Germany would have to enforce these sanctions as part of the UN weapons embargo. However, embarrassingly for the Trump administration, these claims are untrue and have no legal basis as the United States cannot unilaterally decide to enforce the weapons embargo on behalf of the UN and its member states, especially since the EU has its own weapons embargo on Iran that is set to expire in 2023. Instead, this is a move to deter China and Russia from selling arms to Iran once the embargo is lifted and to boost Trump ahead of Election Day in November. After all, it was Trump who withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018, as he promised he would ‘negotiate a better deal’. The ‘better deal’ is still nonexistent after almost 4 years of a Trump presidency and has only materialised in the form of sanctions since the Iranian government refuses to meet with the Trump administration. JCPOA, as negotiated by Obama, lifted the sanctions on Iran in 2015 in exchange for Iran’s agreement that it would stop the development of its nuclear program. Since Trump withdrew in 2018, Iran exceeded the nuclear enrichment levels outlined in the agreement and tensions are at an all-time high, especially after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani earlier this year.

And yet, despite the existing UN sanctions on Iran, the United States continues to announce and impose new sanctions on Iran on a semi-daily basis, even amidst a pandemic. Ironically, the Trump administration has placed sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities for ‘gross violations of human rights’, while the suffocating American sanctions consistently violate the Iranian peoples’ human rights and have greatly affected the Iranian government’s ability to gain access any nutritional or medical humanitarian aid in dire times of need. In March, Iran was the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East, and its ability to curb the spread of the virus and provide medical assistance to those in need was heavily affected by the sanctions. Nonetheless, the United States insists that the exemptions from sanctions for humanitarian purposes ensure that Iran receives the aid it needs, even though a report by Human Rights Watch showed that the exemptions were not enough to offset the damage already inflicted on Iran and the conditions that prevent it from adequately accessing aid. For instance, years of sanctions have resulted in an unwillingness of banks to do business with Iran because of a lack of perceived profitability, which makes it hard for Iran to pay for any purchases. Another barrier is the fact that many items that are essential during the pandemic are considered ‘dual-use’, meaning that they can also be used in the development of nuclear weapons, and getting approval from the United States is a process that takes months. Finally, already-existing sanctions have resulted in the depreciation of the Iranian currency, which diminishes the country’s already-weak purchasing power. Thus, the exemptions from the sanctions have clearly been ineffective, and under international law, the United States should monitor the impact of its sanctions on the rights of Iranians and adjust the sanctions to address any violations.

The conditions created by the legally dubious American sanctions over the years have had devastating consequences on the people of Iran. More than 26,000 people have died due to COVID-19 in Iran so far, and the situation does not seem to be relenting any time soon which leads us to pose the question: to what end? American sanctions have not been entirely successful in their goals: if anything, American-Iranian relations deteriorated significantly after Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, and the material conditions tied to the human rights of Iranians have taken a hit. Ironically, the United States adopts sanctions against Iran because of alleged human rights violations by the government, but it is those very sanctions that have contributed to the rapidly declining standards of living in Iran, including access to healthcare and medication. While the US uses economic sanctions as a power exercise more often than not, as with Cuba and Venezuela, the success of this exercise in achieving its desired goals is questionable. Despite the sanctions, we are no closer to regime change in Iran today than we were yesterday, instead, the suffering of the Iranian people continues to be exacerbated by the efforts of the Trump administration, under the thinly-veiled guise of human rights violations and supporting the will of the Iranian people.