Mullahs Prosper as Sanctions Fatigue Hits

Add this to the list of concerns over the crumbling state of international sanctions against Iran: The United Nations Security Council's authority and, specifically, its ability to impose sanctions against individuals around the world are being challenged – by Europe, no less.

Critics of the way the White House conducts Iran diplomacy used hearings on Capitol Hill this week to detail ways in which last November's “joint plan of action” – an interim agreement reached in Geneva between Iran and six world powers as part of a deal to limit Iranian nuclear ambitions – undermines economic pressures on the Islamic Republic.

“Iran's economy was veering toward the red zone, and unfortunately I think that we blinked four to six months too early,” Mark Wallace, chief executive officer of the United Against Nuclear Iran, a sanction-watching group, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

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“Recent macroeconomic trends, changes in market sentiment, economic gains in specific sectors subject to sanctions relief, and worrying signals of large-scale sanctions-busting by U.S. partners indicate that economic pressure on the Iranian government is diminishing,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation to Defend Democracies told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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But as would-be business partners flood Tehran, hoping to get first in line to renew business as usual, Dubowitz told the Senate committee that he wonders if Washington can still “restore fear in the international markets and prevent a psychological shift, both inside and outside Iran.”

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