I was born in Myanmar and grew up there for more than two decades. The impact of economic sanctions are felt not by the ruling class (the military generals), but by the average citizen. Looking back, I firmly believe that sanctions simply deteriorates the human capital and resource (and thus the potential to spur any progressive change) rather than creating any sort of difficulty for the military.<p>Because of the sanctions, there's always constant emigration and drained my country of a lot of intelligent and hard working people. We are still suffering from that and the current democratically elected government can't easily find competent people to help rebuild the country...
It's important to remember that US actions have consequences like this. No matter how poorly you think the Iranian government is behaving, our actions toward their country have led to hundreds of thousands of dead Iranians over the years. There is good reason for countries to doubt "US assistance," and further intrusion will likely cause tremendous suffering for their citizens.
The idea of these constraints on trade is to push ordinary people to the point where they rise up and overthrow the regime. This is the same reason for so-called strategic bombing where you bomb civilians in the hope of the same aim. Neither has ever been demonstrated to be effective.<p>(as a side point the use of the term "sanction" in this way became annoyingly weird in the 1990s -- it's actually sanctioning a <i>restriction</i> on trade).
In the same circumstances, Iran sent 200 tons of medicine to Iraq.
The Islamic Republic lied.
Medicine and food are not under US sanctions. This is the oppression of the Islamic Republic's mafia to the Iranian people.<p><a href="https://www.isna.ir/news/97071810369/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%DA%AF%DB%8C%D8%B1%DB%8C-%DB%B2%DB%B0%DB%B0-%D8%AA%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88-%D9%88-%D8%AA%D8%AC%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%81%DB%8C-%D9%BE%D8%B2%D8%B4%DA%A9%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82" rel="nofollow">https://www.isna.ir/news/97071810369/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%DA%A...</a>
Suppose Iran passed a law invalidating all patents of drugs it cannot buy on the market at market prices. Possibly appointing an agency to sort out which ones they are exactly and publish lists. Any drug featured in such lists would be thereby clear for anyone to manufacture in Iran.<p>What would the consequences be?
The article seems to be lacking some context:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terro...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran</a>
It is so frustrating that the EU doesn't have the capacity or the courage to stand up against these unjustified and illegal sanctions. We really are powerless in the face of the whims of a capricious fool and his warmongering friends.