Financial Sanctions to ‘Starve Them Out”
The US administration continued its maximum pressure policy this week through a renewed round of sanctions on Iran. This latest round targeted the Iranian financial sector and ‘blacklisted’ 18 major Iranian banks. The reason given for 16 of these banks was “operating in Iran’s financial sector.”
Steve Mnuchin, US Treasury Secretary, claimed that these sanctions would not limit humanitarian transactions. However, many international critics have claimed that sanctions are preventing the flow of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid. President Rouhani has appealed to the international community on human rights grounds because, despite a humanitarian exemption to the sanctions, foreign financial institutions are now unwilling to interact with Iran. It should be noted that humanitarian trade is exempt from sanctions under international law.
These sanctions are not entirely unprecedented, however, the US have previously sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran and the Parsian Bank (which facilitated the majority of humanitarian trade at the time.) The wider international community has refrained from reintroducing sanctions, mainly because of the coronavirus pandemic. Iranian case numbers have risen by 24,545 and a further 1,712 have died in the last week.
Sources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-54476894
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/10/8/us-sanctions-irans-entire-financial-sector
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/10/9/fears-rise-over-human-toll-after