August 4, 2015 | Quote

The Limitations of Sanctions on Iran

The parts of the Iran nuclear agreement that would lift sanctions are among its most complicated and controversial elements, partly because there is disagreement about what effect the sanctions have had on Tehran’s nuclear program.

There is no doubt that the international economic sanctions put in place since 2005, primarily by Congress and the Obama administration working together, have “helped bring Iran to the [negotiating] table” and “in the words of Iranian President [Hassan] Rouhani . . . threatened to drive Iran back into the Stone Age.”

That was Juan C. Zarate, George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism and now chairman of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testifying Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“The financial constriction campaign which began against Iran in 2005 has proven effective over the past decade not because Iran was hermetically sealed with naval blockades or classic trade embargoes, but because it was unplugged from the elements of the global financial and commercial order,” Zarate explained.

Where Zarate emphasized problems he saw in the JCPOA, the other witness at Thursday’s Senate hearing, Richard Nephew, who served as the State Department’s principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy and the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team negotiating with Iran, saw opportunities.

Nephew said, “I do not believe U.S. sanctions would stop Iran’s enrichment program from moving.” Zarate added: “I think U.S. financial power and influence is enormous and would have an impact. Would it stop a nuclear program alone? I don’t think so.

Zarate spoke of weaknesses in the nuclear deal’s “snapback” provision, which would permit the majority of an eight-member joint U.N. commission to reimpose sanctions based on any allegations that Iran was cheating.

Calling it “a blunt instrument,” Zarate said, “It will only be applied if the most egregious violations can be proven openly and convincingly to all parties.”

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Issues:

Iran Iran Sanctions