“Tough talk” on Iran has real life consequences
This language goes hand in hand with the draconian policies it serves to validate — the United States government has effectively criminalized global trade with Iran.
Since 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries overthrew the Western-backed monarchy in Tehran, condemning Iran has been a staple of politics in the United States and Canada. The Islamic republic is presented as a foil to Western values, and voters are left to interpret this “tough talk” as a sign of strength — even a willingness to confront the nation’s adversaries.
In 2002, President George W. Bush included Iran in his “Axis of Evil”. Later, President Barack Obama put “all options on the table” when it came to confronting Tehran. Earlier this month, the rhetoric escalated, when President Donald Trump warned Iran’s leaders against retaliatory attacks on American troops stationed in Iraq. “If you fuck around with us, you do something bad to us,” Trump said in a talk radio interview, “we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.”
The same kind of posturing afflicts Canadian officials as well. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he considered Iran the “most serious threat to international peace and security” and has openly backed Trump’s hardline policies on Iran. Erin O’Toole, the freshly-minted Conservative leader, has called on Ottawa to stand up to “Iran’s fascist dictatorship and its total disregard for human life.”
This simplistic narrative serves a dangerous purpose, upholding a constellation of policies and attitudes that isolate Iran’s government and starve its economy — all in the name of national security.
The Trump administration calls this a campaign of “maximum pressure”. It involves a decades-old sanctions regime designed to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, but at the same time equates compromise with the Iranians to appeasement. Taken to its logical conclusion, the only option left standing is the use of military force. It is reinforced in the press, where Iran’s leadership is described as a global menace — at times on equal footing with powers like China and Russia. Ultimately, however, it punishes the Iranian people for their form of government — or rather for not rising up against it.
At no period has this language facilitated more suffering than in the case of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Iran was among the first countries affected by the virus, but U.S. sanctions held up the initial shipments of test kits, delaying the early detection and tracing of its spread. An article in the New Left Review describes how U.S. sanctions “slashed government revenues, straining the country’s universal health-insurance programme, and increased the cost of healthcare by nearly 20 per cent through rising inflation.” As a result of these economic restrictions, wealth and health gaps have widened across Iranian society.
Despite a robust national network of medical centres, Iran’s government, like many others, has struggled to contain the outbreak of disease. Lockdowns and other measures are costly and difficult to enforce, as the value of Iran’s currency has plummeted under sanctions. A rare request for international aid by Iran’s government (its first since 1960) was snubbed by Washington. In July, Iran’s president estimated that 25 million Iranians may have been infected during the first wave; now, as the third wave razes across the country, the cruelty seems to be the point.
The recent spike in new daily cases has been particularly concerning, and the death toll continues to climb. Official figures report nearly 600,000 cases, including more than 34,000 deaths. “For sure, our death tolls would have been lower if the US sanctions were not enforced and had not caused a delay in treatments,” Kianush Jahanpur, a health ministry spokesman, told the Financial Times. “The US administration is directly responsible for this.”
In the context of a global economy, sanctions are tantamount to warfare. But perhaps because the cost of these measures are not borne out in the United States and Canada, as opposed to an armed conflict, opposition to their use is tempered. However, the absence of a wider campaign to provide economic relief to Iran from U.S. pressure amidst the pandemic illustrates the pervasive nature of a merciless narrative that victimizes Iranians by virtue of their nationality.
In this void, the Trump administration has quietly blacklisted the few remaining financial institutions that facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran, including essential foodstuffs and medicines. Iranian pharmaceutical companies supply the majority of the domestic market, but sanctions have disrupted these vulnerable supply chains. In some cases, treatments for rare cancers, brain tumours, and other diseases are procured on international markets. These, too, are now in jeopardy.
It would be too simplistic to write off Trump’s rhetoric as a bombastic interview intended to rile up voters in the lead up to a hotly contested election. Instead, this language goes hand in hand with the draconian policies it serves to validate — the United States government has effectively criminalized global trade with Iran.
Here in Canada, a similar version of this narrative percolates, motivated by the desire to exact a toll for ousting Western hegemony from Iran more than four decades ago. The cost of revolution can be high, and Iranians are still paying the price.
