Illustrative Image: Iranian Revolutionary Guards members march during a parade ceremony
The measure aims only to serve American interests, without any benefit to global peace.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
Tensions remain high between the US and Iran. Recently, the US government announced that it is willing to remove some of the sanctions that are currently being imposed on Tehran, but the news has not been well received by the Persian country. The reason is that the relief only addresses the very American interests. Washington plans simply to end sanctions that do not conform to the terms of the Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with no real effort on the part of the US to improve bilateral relations and ease tensions.
On December 14, the US government declared a green light to ease or end some sanctions against Iran that are not in accordance with the terms of the JCPOA (international agreement established in 2015 providing for Iran’s production of enriched uranium to decrease in return of sanctions’ removal by the West). Commenting on the case, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, stated that the measure “would allow Iran to receive the economic benefits of the deal”.
However, Tehran did not show any contentment with the mere possibility of a partial suspension of sanctions, having demanded a deeper attitude on the part of Washington. Iran’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, emphasized that the US must immediately ban all sanctions against Iran, as well as pledge not to withdraw again from any of the international agreements in which both countries are involved.
Indeed, there is something understandable about Iran’s negative response to the US measure. The 2015 agreement was extremely celebrated by the entire international community as it managed to establish reasonably fair conditions to align Western and Iranian interests. In fact, Iran struggled to comply with the terms of the agreement, which was not complemented by the US. Washington unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, during the Trump administration. The US return to the agreement began to be supported by Biden and the Democrats as a way to improve the US international image – which had been severely damaged by Trump’s peculiarities – but apparently such a return is permeated with a truly dishonest attitude: the selection of sanctions that violate the agreement.
Obviously, all current US sanctions violate the JCPOA. It is not a matter of having “fair” sanctions and “illegal” sanctions. All the measures that the US has taken against Iran in recent years go against the JCPOA’s objective, as the American withdrawal from the agreement was followed by the infamous “maximum pressure” campaign, which ruined the Iranian economic structure, harming the entire society of the Persian country, despite Tehran’s efforts to comply with the terms of the agreement. In this sense, any selection of sanctions seems wrong, unfair, and insufficient to restore the balance in the relations between the US and Iran, as in all current measures there are terms that directly violate the JCPOA.
This “selection” that the White House plans is very simple to understand. Washington will ban only those sanctions that have been nominally credited to the nuclear issue, which is the subject of the JCPOA agreement. But there is no justice in this kind of attitude, as it is just a legalistic formalism totally devoid of material substance. After the beginning of the maximum pressure campaign, the US began to punish Iran for several reasons, not just considering the nuclear issue. Teheran has received sanctions for its missiles, alleged “human rights violations” and even alleged “support for terrorism”, in addition to several other unsubstantiated accusations typical of American international praxis in recent years. In practice, only nuclear matter sanctions would be selected, but most of the coercive measures would remain intact, which is absolutely unfair. In addition, considering that the establishment of the very maximum pressure campaign is a consequence of the nuclear issue, it is evident that all sanctions affront the JCPOA and, therefore, must be immediately eliminated.
The attitude to be expected from Iran from now on is one of increasing distance from the West. The partial removal of sanctions will not be enough to re-establish a fair dialogue between Tehran and the Washington and, consequently, tensions are likely to continue for a long time. Since the American exit from the JCPOA, Iran has been delaying in fulfilling the terms of the agreement. The country has pledged to eliminate around 98% of its enriched uranium reserves and is still on time to comply with the agreement (only seven of the thirteen-year term provided for in the pact have passed). However, from 2018 until now, the country has returned to enriching uranium and may continue to do so.
In fact, Iran has self-imposed restrictions in order to never produce nuclear weapons. It is not in the plans of an Islamic theocracy to build weapons of mass destruction, which are considered sacrilegious by the state religion. The US objective is simply to banish the Persian country’s entire nuclear technology program, even for peaceful purposes. Precisely for that the JCPOA served as a pact of alignment of interests, but which can only be fully restored if the US totally abandons its coercive measures.
NATO is trying to scare Iran with military confrontation if they don’t agree to a deal under their terms. Iran has shown multiple times it isn’t scared, and they know this. Israel and America need to quit threatening them, because they know they won’t last long in a war with Iran, especially Israel
You dont decide what they need. We elect people for it.
Well we all voted and elected for you to go swimming in the Artic for a month or two so get your togs and away you go. Bye jams.
Thats how things are. We decided the sun goes down in east, and it does.
We have drone pictures looking at muslims with compasses and GPS. So many put their behinds in the wrong direction. Some even are praying extra saturday with the Jews.
Many jews actually think its a kind of solidarity with them too.
Iran, like North Korea, NEEDS NUKES because they are constantly being attacked and sabotaged by isrealhell and it’s attack dogs, USA
what came first. Was it eggs or little childish roosters. Both semees to be amputated by birth too and even prefare the same kind of food.
Those Blue Meanies are not doing your head much good are they doodle brain. Hi jams , need a raspberry. you deserve one.
As the great Ron Paul stated numerous times in his republican runs for U.S. president; all economic sanctions or embargoes are an act of war. Economic sanctions are no different than the old days of doing naval blockades of a countries ports, wherein trade is cutoff and the people are starved. At this point, I don’t think the status quo will ever change in the U.S. Unless Americans wake the f*** up, and clean house, these crimes against humanity will continue.
It typical here to use the most extreme americans as if they represented many. Ron Paul was respected but respect is not the same as support.
He is Texas hardly representing USA at all.
You cheat Yourself and get surprice after surprice by spreading that kind of dark among Yourself.
If USA and “West” was like him, we were collpased many years ago. Some might say he should have been an abortion.
Yes you are an abortion .
Yours only write what they are told or dare tio tell. Its almost as Haram is the same as Ham for You.
You dont learn to share information. You dont look up. And when You look up You use highly biased versions or worse.
Our best Russian friends are in Russia as long as they stay there. They even think we will come and get them. Only cannibals in Our parlaments support something like that.
We could send them to Afghanistan where You celabrate Talebans now are unproductive rulers.
Russians are no ham.
That would benefit the world nicely, but we Americans are far too busy watching the talking heads on TV and the vast majority are locked into it’s diatribe. That vast majority continues to believe…exactly what I’m no longer sure…but we started down this modern slippery-slope when we decided to start believing fairy-tales of magic bullets, patsy assassins and electing Presidents who were crooks, ‘B’ actors, CIA heads, village idiots, backstabbers and reality show conmen. 9/11 is now 20 years ago and we’re no smarter today than then, bickering over 28 pages of deception. As long as the main player in American politics, indeed, in the world is ignored, ain’t nothin gonna change. They control and own the narrative and as long as that TV finds their propaganda daily, the lemmings will continue to the cliffs edge. What is worse, some that really believe they are awake, mostly spout what they see on their preferred web site. No vetting, no investigating who owns them or their associates…just following that which reflects their beliefs. Yeah, there are a lot of us that realize we’re being had every way possible, but few compared the the rest of the herd. People like Ron Paul, Gravel, Trafficant and a handful of others spoke the actual name of the beast and look at what happened to them. Ron Paul might as well be on the moon, as the support he’d get from his own party is nonexistent. We are being force-fed the idea of a civil war now, because Americans can’t come together? In reality, the truth is that we are still being led down the slaughter house path, but all Americans see is a garden path. Cleaning house today would be nearly impossible simply because Americans no longer can think for themselves. The very same can be said of every nation worldwide. Proof? How many leaders are wearing face diapers? Are politicians heeding their peoples anywhere? Cleaning up the American house would be great for America and those we F over. But we ain’t alone is this mess, look at Europe, for one.