IPFS

Trump Regime's Sanctions War on Iran Tightened

Written by Subject: Iran

Trump Regime's Sanctions War on Iran Tightened

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Trump regime economic terrorism on Iran aims to starve and otherwise punish its ruling authorities and people into submission.

Forty years of US political, economic and financial war on Iran failed to achieve its objectives, hostile Trump regime policies likely to fail like its predecessors.

Sanctions are weapons of war by other means, illegal when imposed by one nation against another. 

The Security Council alone may impose them legally. Circumventing its authority is a flagrant UN Charter breach — what the US does time and again unaccountably.

The Vienna-based International Progress Organization called sanctions "an illegitimate form of collective punishment of the weakest and poorest members of society, the infants, the children, the chronically ill, and the elderly."

Throughout its history, the Islamic Republic has found ways to circumvent illegal US sanctions, including by working cooperatively with private entities and friendly nations like Russia, China, and Turkey.

On Friday during a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said "the US is employing oppressive economic tools in order to impose its illegitimate political goals on independent nations out of desperation in such outrageous and arrogant ways considered to be economic terrorism," adding:

Unity among NAM nations can counter hostile US actions by "finding solutions for the current global problems and within the framework of law abiding, fulfillment of international commitments, moderation and prevention of violence and extremism."

"(A)n aggressor (regime in Washington) is committing all these crimes against an entire nation (and others), while the UN has remained tight-lipped."

Its secretary general (and most of his predecessors) failed to uphold their mandate, requiring them to work for world peace, security, and sustainable development — "put(ting) human rights at the heart of (the UN's) work" in accordance with UN Charter principles.

During his September UN General Assembly address,  Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif slammed Trump regime maximum pressure, amounting to economic terrorism on the Iranian people, aiming to deny them access to essentials to life and well-being.

On Friday, Trump's Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a "new humanitarian mechanism (in name only) to ensure unprecedented transparency into humanitarian trade with Iran" — the scheme unrelated to helping Iranians' access food and medicines.

OFAC falsely accused Tehran "of  squandering its wealth on corruption and terrorism instead of supporting the Iranian people." Polar opposite is true.

Claiming the Trump regime is "establishing a payment mechanism to facilitate legitimate humanitarian exports to Iran" amounts to an exercise in mass deception.

The scheme aims to prevent Iranian authorities from providing its people with essentials to life, wanting the US in charge of what enters and doesn't enter the country, a further Trump regime usurpation of Iranian sovereign rights and breach of international law.

It's designed to escalate economic terrorism on Iran and its people by pretending to offer humanitarian assistance, Trump regime hardliners want almost entirely cut off.

The scheme resembles genocidal  US-orchestrated sanctions on Iraq and its people throughout the 1990s until 2003.

The 1995-initiated oil for food program permitted $74 of food annually per person (about 21 cents a day) and $15 worth of medicines (about 4 cents a day). 

Vitally needed syringes, anesthetics, antibiotics and other medicines were banned. 

So were all potential "dual use" items – including chlorine to purify water, vital medical equipment, chemotherapy and pain-killing drugs, ambulances, and virtually everything the US wanted long-suffering Iraqis denied — a punitive agenda unrelated to security issues.

All Iraqi funds were frozen and administered through a US-controlled Development Fund for the country — a scheme similar to the newly proposed "humanitarian" scheme OFAC wants imposed on Iran.

UN Resolution 661 stipulated that all goods entering Iraq required unanimous approval by Security Council members. Washington used its veto power to block essentials to life from entering the country — or enough of them to matter.

Notably on one occasion, baby food was denied entry on the grounds that adults might consume it.

Results were predictable, normal life eliminated, replaced by a daily struggle to survive. 

Millions perished, especially severely malnourished Iraqi children — succumbing to genocidal US orchestrated economic terrorism throughout the 1990s by Bush I, the Clinton co-presidency, and Bush/Cheney from 2001 - 2003. 

UN humanitarian coordinators for Iraq Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck resigned over opposition to imposed genocide on the Iraqi people.

Over a dozen years of UN imposed sanctions were responsible for around 7,000 civilian deaths monthly, including 5,000 children under age-five — one of history's great crimes.

In a November 2001 London Guardian op-ed, von Sponeck and Halliday denounced genocidal sanctions on Iraq that were responsible for "destroy(ing) (its) society," adding:

"How much longer can democratically elected governments hope to get away with justifying policies that punish the Iraqi people for something they did not do, through economic sanctions that target them in the hope that those who survive will overthrow the regime?" 

"Is international law only applicable to the losers? Does the UN security council only serve the powerful?"

Separately, Halladay said he was "driven to resignation because I refused to continue to take Security Council orders, the same Security Council that had imposed and sustained genocidal sanctions on the innocent of Iraq. I did not want to be complicit. I wanted to be free to speak out publicly about this crime."

Trump regime economic terrorism on Iran aims to replicate how Iraqis suffered for years, culminating with devastating Bush/Cheney aggression, US occupation, plunder of the nation's resources, and continued immiseration of its people.

Iranian authorities are going all-out to defeat Trump's hostile agenda, notably aided by Russia, China, and other nations opposed to Washington's imperial  high crimes — a scourge threatening everyone everywhere.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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