Iran: Sanctions might turn counter-productive

Iran has announced it will break a limit set on uranium enrichment, in breach of the landmark 2015 deal designed to curb its nuclear ambitions. Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said “Iran still wanted to salvage the deal but blamed European countries for failing to live up to their own commitments”.

 

In 2015, The Iran nuclear deal framework agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and a group of world powers: the P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China—plus Germany) and the European Union, was reached.

 

Under this deal, sanctions on Iran were supposed to be removed and Iran was bound to not to exceed the permissible limit of Uranium enrichment. This was a big achievement for the whole world, both sides were happy and a win-win situation was celebrated. Under the deal, the nuclear weapon control regime was strengthened and Iran’s economic situation was expected to be improved. 

 

Unfortunately, the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018. The rest of 5 nations: Russia, China, France, UK, and Germany) were still insisting to keep the deal intact.  But the US after its unilateral withdrawal imposed sanctions on Iran and asked the international community to abide by the US imposed sanctions. Iran’s economy was rippling down. Iran still wanted to maintain its commitment but kept on asking its 5 other signatories of the deal to play its role to remove sanctions on Iran. Iran’s patience reached its uppermost limit and finally have to announce to Iran still wanted to salvage the “Nuclear Deal” but sanctions must be removed, otherwise, Iran might have no option left, except the enrichment of Uranium to the higher grade.

 

In fact, the US was using “Sanctions” as a tool during the cold war era to achieve its political objectives. But most of the time such tricks worked well. But during the recent past, sanctions were not proved an effective tool. 

 

On the other hand, the world has witnessed that nuclear deterrence is the only option left for the survival of small nations. The best example is North Korea, a tiny state, extremely poor, but equipped with nuclear deterrence, is still striving its independence and enjoying equal status while meeting President Trump. The US dealing with North Korea is highly responsible and sensitive. President Trump meets President Kim in a different manner!

 

However, Examples of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen, etc are very different. The US unilateral action against all these countries, without any hesitation, shows that they were lack of “Nuclear Deterrence” and can be invaded easily. The United Nation, International Community, the Whole World could not save them from total destruction. Humanity was silent expectations only and watching how the killing of innocent civilians was being killed by a superpower of the time.

 

Trust, we all have the responsibility to save this world, we all need to save humanity, killing and bloodshed of human beings in any part of the world may not be acceptable by any civilized nations or individuals. It is still time to salvage the Iran nuclear deal and any big disaster may be averted. 

 

Any military action on Iran can destroy the whole region, and its impact on the energy sector may be adverse and may impact European Economies, which highly depends on the import of Oil and gas from the Middle-East. Instability in middle-east will definitely have an impact on oil prices and supply. 

 

It is appealed to the United Nations, International Community, All stakeholders, all civilized nations and individuals to opt for negotiations. Coercion, pressure, and sanctions may not achieve the desired results. The military option may lead to total disaster only, must be averted.