US government has imposed tough sanctions against Iranian military, a clear sign of escalation of hostilities between Washington and Tehran over the nuclear standoff. It is a very rare thing to see the Americans target a country’s military infrastructure with stringent sanctions. This may be a signal, on the part of the United States, to the international community that Iran is taking their patience to the limit and the time to take the matter into own hands has come.
There is a growing feeling among the US and its allies that economic sanctions alone will not be able to force Iran to change its hard line stance on the nuclear issue. Any constructive military sanction would put a plug on Iran’s ability to acquire foreign funds and continue expertzing uranium enrichment in addition to the alleged role played by the Islamic Republic’s elite Revolutionary Guards in fomenting violence against coalition forces in Iraq and against Israel in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Western economic analysts believe that if economic sanctions(already in place against Iran since 1979) were successful, Tehran would not have been able to install a uranium enrichment program on its own and directly purchasing nuclear fuel from abroad would have been much more cost-effective. Furthermore, it is a fact that economic sanctions affect the livelihood of innocent civilians rather than radical government strategies, as was in the case of the late Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
But there is a good scope of resolving the issue diplomatically too. For that to happen, the United States must work closely with Russia and China - Iran’s political and economic partners. Russia, recently, is angered by Washington’s continuous meddling into its own internal matters and indirectly supporting other former Soviet states’ efforts to join the EU (let us take the instances of the Ukraine and Georgia). To get Russia involved in the Iranian matter, the US must assure Moscow that its ‘regime change’ policy is not directed towards the Russians or other Moscow-leaning Caucasian or Baltic states.
The recent positive developments regarding North Korea is another instance that proves boiling issues can be resolved through direct talks rather than reciprocal war threats. After North Korea successfully tested nuclear bomb, Washington realized the mistake of isolating a country, which makes it more determined to pursue its hostile goals. With the help of Russia and China, Pyongyang was persuaded to enter into negotiations and after many grueling efforts, there is every chance that the communist nation would give up its nuclear weapons.
The US must engage Iran directly into any future talks and see if Tehran is honestly concerned about diffusing the matter diplomatically, if not, then there is always a Plan B.
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Link: Washington Post
