Next Round of US Sanctions Aims at Destroying Iran’s Economy

Officials Hope to Cripple Economy Ahead of Talks

With the next round of negotiations with Iran set to begin in the next month or so, the Obama Administration is imposing yet more rounds of sanctions on the Iranian economy. Whereas others targeted specific segments, the new sanctions aim at damaging broad swathes of the economy with an eye towards collapsing it outright.

“The goal is to create a chilling effect on all nonhumanitarian commercial trade with Iran,” noted Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, adding that trying to target only parts of the Iranian economy was a “game of whack-a-mole that the United States could never win.”

The underlying justification for attacking Iran’s civilian economy with what borders on an outright embargo is the assumption that if the civilian economy is damaged sufficiently Iran will be more willing to negotiate. Yet since each new round of talks includes more onerous US demands, there is a constant game of trumping anything Iran might be willing to accept at any given time.

And so the economic warfare continues, leaving Iran’s government all the stronger as its civilian economy dies, and its population is forced to rely on government-run industries for what little economic production yet remains.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.