International sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme are having “the exact opposite effect” of their intended purpose, a panel discussion was told yesterday.
“The sanctions appear to be failing to create indirect pressure on the Iranian government through internal market and social conditions,” said Dr Mehran Kamrava, director of the Centre for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.
Speaking at the event titled ‘War by Other Means: Iran Under Sanctions,’ the academic asserted that there has always been an assumption that sanctions are a prelude to war, or a different type of war.
“The goal of this war is that through the imposition of sanctions, pressure will be put on the Iranian government in its negotiations with the US and its allies over the nuclear issue.
“Despite the high cost to the vulnerable segments of Iranian society, this war appears to be failing. The sanctions are actually quite counter-productive. In other words, sanctions, our analysis shows, are having the exact opposite effect of their intended purpose.”
Dr Kamrava said the sanctions impact the daily lives of millions of people in terms of their access to basic goods, especially medicines and other basic necessities.
“So we specifically want to know how the Iranian poor are coping with the sanctions, and what they are doing to get around them.”
The panel, which also included Dr Mansoor Moaddel, CIRS visiting scholar and Dr Manata Hashemi, CIRS post doctoral fellow, analysed the history and consequences of US-led sanctions on Iran, leveraged amid US concern that Iran’s uranium enrichment could
be turned into nuclear capability.
The panellists argued that the shortages experienced in Iran result not only from the sanctions’ impact on imports and financial institutions, but on the Iranian government’s manipulation of supplies, in order to blame the West and its allies.
They also likened this push and pull between the involved parties to an armed conflict.
GU-Q Dean and event moderator Gerd Nonneman earlier pointed out that Iran has been the subject of increasingly comprehensive sanctions because of questions over its nuclear programme.
“The effect of these sanctions, however, has been anything but straightforward, either in terms of its impact on Iran’s population, politics and policies, or on the region and the global economy. A thorough analysis of these impacts, including unintended consequences, is absolutely vital.”