Sanctions Against Iran Can Work

David Streeter — December 16, 2009 – 2:48 pm | Foreign Policy | Iran Comments (0) Add a comment

In reference to the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act yesterday, Foreign Policy published analysis by noted Iran experts in support of sanctions.

Before the Iranian regime’s brutal effort to crush the protests following the June 12 presidential election, an Iranian cab driver who couldn’t buy gasoline would probably curse the Americans. After witnessing the brutal crackdown and his fellow citizens dying in the streets, he now might very well blame the regime.

Continued:

... with the Islamic Republic, as a means of addressing nuclear weaponization and democracy, gasoline sanctions are a sensible approach that might well have productively convulsive effects.

It’s precisely because of the possibility that gasoline sanctions could be so consequential that they’re worth pursuing. We suspect senior Iranian officials have been so loud in mocking the effectiveness of these sanctions because the regime knows it still does not have the requisite reserve capacity—despite its much ballyhooed efforts—to stop such sanctions from fomenting even more distaste for the regime on the Iranian street.

The options to deal with Iranian nukes are not between good and bad but between bad and worse.  We don’t like sanctions. But they are a peaceful alternative that just might put significant pressure on Tehran. It’s worth a try.

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