Words versus deeds: Are White House sanctions on Iranians economic

terrorism?
October 4, 2019

Tehran accuses Washington of launching an economic terrorism against Iranian people, a claim that the
U.S. denies.

On the one hand, the Trump administration officials say that food, medicine and other humanitarian
supplies are officially exempt from sanctions. On the other, Iran says that Washington’s “economic
terrorism” has targeted the ordinary people, including patients and children.

It is, however, not very hard to verify counterclaims by going beyond the words and take a peek into the
deeds.

Decades-long tensions between the two started to heighten once again last year when Donald Trump
walked out of a 2015 landmark agreement, under which the Islamic Republic agreed to curb its nuclear
program in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions.

However, the U.S. reimposed sanctions, targeting oil, banking and transportation sectors of Iran that had
been lifted under the agreement and introduced new ones, arguing the curbs did not go far enough and it
wants to compel Iran back to the negotiating table.

In response to the U.S. policy of “maximum pressure”, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
has said “we acted in good faith” and that Tehran won’t negotiate with Washington unless it shows
“respect” for its commitments under the nuclear deal, internationally known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

The U.S. measures are seemingly intended to target everything from oil sales to shipping and financial
activities but the problem is that they have deterred foreign banks from doing any business with Iran.
Fearing U.S. penalty, banks even refuse to transfer money for import of food and medicine by Iran.

“Children and ill people cannot get basic medicine,” President Hassan Rouhani said earlier in September
when he was attending the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, where his foreign
minister Zarif once again denounced U.S. sanctions as an attempt to deny ordinary Iranians access to
food and medicine, and said the move was “a sign of U.S. desperation.”

Back in July, the U.S. Department of State released a video addressed to the people of Iran. In the video,
Trump administration official Brian Hook claims that it is a “myth” that sanctions target Iran’s access to
medicine.

However, according to the Lancet, (one of the world’s oldest, most prestigious, and best known general
medical journals), chemotherapy drugs such as asparaginase, the leukemia treatment mercaptopurine,
and even the basic pain killer paracetamol have run out of stock, threatening the treatment of thousands
of children, Foreign Policy reported.

The latest news say that over 20 ships carrying around one million tons of grain are stuck outside Iranian
ports as U.S. sanctions create payment problems and hamper the country’s efforts to import vital
commodities, sources directly involved in the trade said, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
“There are no restrictions on humanitarian business, but you can’t get paid for it,” one European source
said. “You can be waiting for months to get a payment.”

Another source said, “There is nervousness among traders about making more sales to Iran before the
backlog (of ships) is cleared.”

“Some small banks that we used to work with have informed us that they will no longer do business with
us,” a source told Reuters, declining to name the banks.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated last month that Iran’s total cereal
stocks in 2019 would total 5.1 million tons, falling to 4.8 million tons in 2020, versus 9.9 million tons in
2016.

Trade sources told Reuters in December that Bunge [an American agribusiness and food company] and
rival U.S. group Cargill [CARGIL.UL] as well as other suppliers had halted new food supply deals to Iran
due to payment issues.

Based on such evidence, it is not hard to conclude why Iran names U.S. economic sanctions as
unconcealed examples of economic terrorism.