Unemployment and Rising Prices: The Face of Iran Sanctions

Sanctions Harm Private Industry, Leave Populace Seeking Government Aid

A factory closes, forcing an employee into unemployment and his wife into selling her jewelry to make ends meet. Food and rent prices are soaring as the value of the currency dropped 10 percent in one day.

This is the face of international sanctions on the streets of everytown, Iran, where the US-pushed sanctions have destroyed much of the nation’s middle class, destroyed much of the private economy, and left the military’s “shell companies” largely untouched.

US officials have been very upfront about the goal on anti-Iran sanctions, saying they are aimed at producing public discontent, with the hope that the Iranian public, faced with a dying private sector, will force a regime change for the US.

Instead, the Iranian civilians are seeing the US deliberately doing them harm, and in their desperation are turning to the Iranian government, which still has jobs to offer and money to distribute. Far from weakening the government’s hand the sanctions are, as they so often have in other nations, cementing their control over the nation.

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.