A Syrian woman, who was stranded following the closure of border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, waits with a child to cross into Iraqi Kurdistan from the Syrian side of the Semalka border crossing in northeastern Syria on July 29, 2020. (DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP)
Sanctions on Iran and Syria by the United States could have far-reaching consequences that exacerbate the people’s suffering and undermine efforts to advance peace and boost the economies in those nations, experts said.
In another fresh posture during the nuclear negotiations on Iran, the US Department of Treasury on Dec 7 released a statement listing new sanctions on mostly political and special law enforcement officials from Iran, Syria and Uganda. The move prevents US entities from dealing with those blacklisted, and allows for the freezing of any US assets of those targeted.
Furkan Halit Yolcu, a research assistant at the Sakarya University Middle East Institute in Turkey, said the humanitarian costs of sanctions always create “a headache for the enforcers”
Furkan Halit Yolcu, a research assistant at the Sakarya University Middle East Institute in Turkey, said the humanitarian costs of sanctions always create “a headache for the enforcers”. "That is called reverse causality. Something you do hurts you back with its result."
Yolcu said sanctions targeting individuals may not cause much harm to the communities at large, but they may prompt those targeted to adopt a harder line instead.
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Though the US routinely updates its sanctions list, Yolcu thinks the latest announcement, given its timing, will hurt “the atmosphere for further improvements” in relation to ongoing talks in Vienna on the Iran nuclear issue, discussions in which the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany are involved.
Parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, have been trying to salvage the pact, which the US unilaterally ditched in 2018 during the former Donald Trump administration. The negotiations resumed on Dec 9.
Western powers had urged Iran to bring “realistic proposals” to the talks. Iran reiterated that it wants all US sanctions scrapped.
Manjari Singh, a Middle East expert and associate fellow at Centre for Land Warfare Studies in India, said the US Treasury Department’s sanctioning of government agencies and government office bearers in Iran seems like “arm twisting”.
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The individuals sanctioned in Iran, Singh said, have been linked to the handling of protests in the country 2009 and 2019, and sanctioning them suggests Washington is targeting Iran’s domestic front.
“Linking this with the Vienna talks only shows that the US wants to convey a message that they are mindful of the activities at the domestic front. It seems like a negotiating tactic,” Singh said.
Jawaid Iqbal, political science professor and chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said instead of removing the US' existing illegal and unilateral sanctions, the Joe Biden administration has been pursuing policies of economic warfare to “forcefully gain leverage at the negotiating table”.
“These bellicose and hubristic efforts are situated against a background of declining American hegemony in the Middle East — evident in the unfavorable outcomes engendered by the catastrophic wars in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan,” Iqbal said.
As to Syria, the professor said sanctions against the nation chime with the US’ attempt to “abort reconstruction” in the war-torn country.
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“Beginning from October 2019, the US has illegally occupied Syrian territories that are rich in oil and has seized regions that grow wheat, thus preventing (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s) administration from accessing harvests to feed its population,” said Iqbal.
“The new sanctions will continue to tighten this economic noose by restricting financial avenues available to the government in Damascus,” he added.
According to the World Bank’s economic update on Iran in October, the country exited a two-year recession in 2020. However, poor economic activity, due to US sanctions, low oil revenues and higher recurrent and COVID-19 related expenditures widened the fiscal deficit, leading to significant inflationary pressures and currency depreciation.
In a separate report, the World Bank said that from 2011 to 2016, Syria’s cumulative GDP losses were estimated at $226 billion, about four times the Syrian GDP in 2010. By 2019, its economic activities had shrunk by 50 percent.
Calls to ease sanctions have not been limited to negotiating parties involving Iran, Syria or their allies.
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In December last year, United Nations human rights expert Alena Douhan called on the US to remove unilateral sanctions which “may inhibit rebuilding of Syria's civilian infrastructure”, and said the broad sweep of the US sanctions law that went into effect in June the same year could target foreigners helping in the reconstruction of Syria.
