Pushing Iran against the wall: more than just a regional problem
Dr. Emma Hooper
Senior Adviser to CIDOB’s Asia Program & Associated
Professor, EADA
The recent EU, US and UN decisions to impose sanctions on Iran have met
with varying degrees of response by key world players. Global experience
with the effectiveness of sanctions in bringing about behavioural or
regime change has not been a particularly happy one –the sanctions
imposed by the West on Iraq, for instance, arguably worsened the lot of
the Iraqi people, particularly children, without appearing to affect
Saddam Hussein’s rule; and their ineffectiveness ultimately led to the
US-led invasion of Iraq. Sanctions against Myanmar, another regime
distasteful to the West, also seem to have achieved little.
So what is the point, at this juncture, of new sanctions on Iran? What
does the West really hope to gain?(...)
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