The United States government views the sanctions on Iran as a means to an end: it hopes to remove the capability of using nuclear weapons from Iran’s arsenal. At face value, such a method appears to be better than using force. It prevents war and has isolated the Iranian economy from much of the world economy. At the same time, the current sanctions on Iran are absolutely suboptimal for international relations between the United States and Iran. They may protract the time before Iran gains nuclear weapons capability, but they also irretrievably tear apart Iran’s social fabric and economy. In the short term, a diplomatic solution, as opposed to regime change, may leave Israel and the Gulf monarchies feeling betrayed. However, a nuclear weapons-free, but also strong Iran does not spell the end for the interests of the United States and its allies in the Middle East. In reality, a diplomatic solution created by a lessening of sanctions and the true reintroduction of Iran into world politics and economics will greatly increase the likelihood for future cooperation between the United States, its allies and Iran, and will also help save Iran’s economy from the brink of disaster.
The Netanyahu government views Iran as Israel’s greatest existential threat. Even after President Obama and Iran’s President Rouhani spoke on the phone, in an unprecedented conversation between a post-revolution Iranian and American heads of state, Netanyahu dismissed Rouhani’s “charm offensive” as a “ruse to get relief from sanctions.” The Associated Press reports that Netanyahu also noted that he and Israel will never allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, “even if it has to do it alone.” His concerns are valid, as Ayatollah Khameini, widely perceived to still control all major foreign policy decisions in Iran, is notoriously opposed to Israel. Netanyahu’s proposal urging “the international community to keep up pressure on Tehran through sanctions,” has credence, since he believes that “the greater the pressure, the greater the chance for diplomacy to succeed.”
Secretary of State John Kerry concurs with Netanyahu and noted “U.S.-led sanctions against Iran have been the most effective sanctions regime ever.” According to ABC News reporter Josh Lederman, Kerry also offered Iran a choice in which it “can suffer deepening economic sanctions or negotiate its way back into the global community and economy.” However, the time is over for such black and white rhetoric. The United States needs to give up its traditional policy of skeptical pessimism, which has paralyzed itself, Israel and Iran for decades. Instead, the United States must be cautiously optimistic in its approach toward Iran and push for a full diplomatic process. The United States and international community do not have to abandon their sanctions right away, but must also combine the sanctions policy with earnest and optimistic diplomacy. This is of upmost importance because as the sanctions continue to take their toll, the consequences will be dire.
Sanctions simply isolate countries. This is both the most important and most deleterious effect of sanctions. Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, two writers for /The Guardian/ assert that the current sanctions on Iran parallel “the debacle of the UN oil-for-food programme imposed on Iraq under Saddam Hussein.” The oil-for-food program eventually ended in tragedy. When US soldiers finished the first wave of fighting in Iraq in 2003, American policymakers uncovered the fact that the unforgiving UN sanctions had largely ruined Iraq’s economy and society.
The same trend is occurring in Iran. Sanctions have led “Iran’s rial” to be “at an all-time low” and have caused inflation to run at “35 per cent,” Con Coughlin reports in /The Telegraph/. This has created an exchange rate crisis, which economist James Gerber notes is caused by “a sudden and unexpected collapse in the value of a nation’s currency.” In his book /International Economics/, Gerber writes, “an exchange rate crisis often results in a steep recession.” Iran has experienced and continues to experience its own exchange rate crisis and this has resulted in a steep recession. Since its own currency has limited value, “Iran has set up a network of clandestine operations aimed at acquiring foreign currency and gold that can be used to stabilize the currency,” Coughlin reports. Its economy is moving toward the black market and pushing what could be optimal forms of production underground. Due to this, much money is being lost to sanctions.
Iran’s petroleum exports are under particularly harmful sanctions. Few countries are purchasing Iranian oil in high quantities. China is one such country that is dealing with Iran for oil. However, Iran is “allowed to use money it earns from oil sales only to buy products from the purchasing country.” This dilemma leads Iranian supermarkets to be “filled with low-quality Chinese products, while several infrastructure projects are being built by Chinese companies, rather than Iranian,” /NY Times/ writer Thomas Erdbrink reports. China has a virtual monopoly on sales of certain products to Iran. China’s monopoly on Iran’s imports has led to these low-quality Chinese products becoming staples in Iranian supermarkets.
Sanctions are causing Iran to suffer due to a lack of proper medical supplies and drugs. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians with serious illnesses “have been put at imminent risk by the unintended consequences of international sanctions, which have led to dire shortages of life-saving medicines such as chemotherapy drugs for cancer and bloodclotting agents for hemophiliacs,” Borger and Dehghan report. Additionally, “bans on dual-use chemicals which might have a military application” have led many patients to find themselves without proper medication. This is completely unacceptable, and exactly the reason why the international community must focus less on stifling the Khameini-led government, and more on actually solving the nuclear problem. Sanctions must not be used as the means to an end of Khameini, but instead to end the potential for nuclear weapons capabilities.
United States policy makers should focus less on their own aggressive noisemaking and more on actual Iranian voices. In a public letter signed by highly respected Iranian economists, journalists and lawyers, the International Chamber of Commerce opined that sanctions are not fostering international peace, but instead “their catastrophic humanitarian consequences are contributing to worsening international tensions.” The Iranian regime says it will not forget the United States’ clandestinely aggressive activities toward its country, but it is willing to forgive these activities. However, the continuance of sanctions “will result in a human tragedy of substantial scale, whose outcome will undoubtedly be neither forgiven nor forgotten.” The letter continues with “a look at the history of sanctions reveals that the countries imposing sanctions have seldom reached any of their stated goals and in many cases, the end results have been military conflict and colossal human tragedy.” The letter finally concludes with the rhetorical question, “how can sanctions against Iran possibly contribute to world peace?”
The United States, other world powers and Iran must achieve a comprehensive diplomatic solution to the nuclear problem in order to fully reintroduce Iran back into world politics and economics and to save Iran’s economy from the brink of collapse. With the recent overtures between Rouhani and Obama, now is the time to act. Both the US and Iran have opportunities to save the international system from an existential and seemingly eternal conflict with no end in site. Now is the time to act, and both countries should do so in order to contribute to world peace. •
