US-Led Sanctions Against Iran Could Mean an Endless Battle with the Coronavirus
Covid-19, the coronavirus, may not last months, or even years, it may last forever.
Covid-19, the coronavirus, may not last months, or even years, it may last forever.
In January, after the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, America and Iran came inches away from a military conflict. On 10 January, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13902 which compounded an already decades-long crippling set of sanctions on Iran.
Also in January, China was just beginning to identify and deal with an unknown and deadly virus that was starting to impact people in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In very short order, people were dying in China, the country went on lockdown to no avail.
The virus became a worldwide pandemic know as Covid-19 or coronavirus.
As this virus made its way around the world and continues to do so, countries have been facing worst-case medical scenarios. Scenarios that have led governments to enforce countrywide work stoppages, strict “social distancing” guidelines, and in many cases complete lockdowns.
Even the most advanced Western countries have come face-to-face with horrible medical scenarios and less advanced countries experiencing absolutely worst-case medical scenarios.
Iran is front and center in a worst-case scenario.
These worldwide sanctions against Iran include preventing any international financial transactions and shipping, any trade, including that of medicine and medical equipment. These coupled with falling oil prices, Iran’s principal export, have debilitated the Iranian economy.
In a global economy, the sanctions have left Iran unable to compete in that economy. The sanctions have left Iran prostrate in the event such any worst-case situation should impact the country.
That worst-case scenario has arrived with Covid-19, the coronavirus.
As the virus spread through Iran, its government has been unable to react in the same manner that other governments have. The punishing financial nature of these worldwide sanctions against the country means Iran is unable to enforce the kinds of measures other countries have taken in order to properly combat the coronavirus.
According to Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi, any kind of shutdown would be “nearly impossible to enforce because the government would be unable to financially support people unable to work.”
Like many countries battling the pandemic, Iran is in dire need of help:
One citizen is dying every ten minutes and 50 become infected every hour.
As of March 25, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering, Iran ranks sixth in the world with the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus and fourth in the number of dead. And the country is not expected to reach the apogee of the pandemic until May.
Countries around the world, including top American adversaries China and Russia, and its strongest ally Britain, have implored the Trump administration to ease the sanctions on Iran.
However, President Trump remains resolute.
In fact, Trump is so committed that he instituted a new round of sanctions on 20 March blacklisting 12 companies from trading in yet another of Iran’s industries — petrochemicals.
In addition to their request for the US to ease sanctions, China defied the sanctions and sent a medical team, test kits, and ventilators to Iran after the country became a hot zone. As tensions between America and China continue to bubble, having Iran looking to China for help has the potential to upset the balance of power in the region away from the West.
In early March, Chinese government spokesman Lijian Zhao’s poked at the already uneasy detente between China and the US by tweeting, “might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”
Not easing the tension between Iran and the US, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has taken a page from spokesman’s Zhao’s propaganda playbook by claiming that the coronavirus “is specifically built for Iran using the genetic data of Iranians.”
The accusations of both China and Iran remain unsubstantiated.
Taking aim at both China and Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rebutted by referring to the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus” and said Khamenei’s “fabrications are dangerous and they put Iranians and people around the world at greater risk.”
The approach that the United States has taken with Iran has been called “maximum pressure.”
Yet the US Special Representative for Iranian Affairs, Brian Hook, has said: “U.S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran.” Which isn’t entirely accurate.
For example, the arcane legalese used for sanctions is challenging but in President Trump’s 10 January Executive Order it is stated in Sec. 4: “I hereby determine that the making of donations by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests are blocked…”
Cumulatively, these sanctions include:
The making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person
The receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services
Accepting deposits, making granting, transferring, holding, or brokering loans or credits
Purchasing or selling foreign exchange, securities, commodity futures or options
Because banks were unable to process financial transactions the international companies who manufacture the equipment and supplies needed to fight the coronavirus have stopped shipping to Iran.
Iran is marching towards their peak impact of the coronavirus, expected in May, they don’t have the ability to institute measures that could “flatten the curve” and spread the coronavirus. This “maximum pressure” policy that the US has applied to Iran strictly prohibits both foreign and domestic companies and governments from lending aid as the country still faces the worst of the pandemic.
As long as sanctions against Iran remain in place, prohibiting any international activity with the country, the country of 80 million will effectively have been cast aside by the global community.
This isn’t just a problem for the Middle East.
If the international community continues to turn its back on Iran because of punitive measures of the US-led sanctions, the world will face an endless battle with a deadly disease.
Iran’s inability to constrain the coronavirus means a potentially never-ending battle against the deadly Covid-19 or coronavirus.