Written by: Daniel Xie

For decades, Iran has been a target of US imperialism. In 1953, they instigated a coup against then-Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossedegh when he sought to nationalize Anglo Oil company controlled Iranian oil reserves. The US proceeded to back Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as an ally to secure the interests of it and Great Britain in the Persian Gulf. Growing repression by the Shah, carried out through SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police force, led to widespread anti-Americanism, which manifested in the successful 1979 Iranian Revolution against the Shah and the subsequent seizure of the US embassy.

Since the embassy seizure, the US has waged economic warfare on Iran as a means to bring down the Iranian regime. As well as hindering any efforts to work on its nuclear program, which the US suspects to be a smokescreen for developing nuclear weapons. US led economic warfare against Iran was characterized by sanctions targeting Iran’s uranium enrichment, which started in 2006 (sanctions against Iran not targeting uranium enrichment started much earlier, right after the 1979 revolution). This occurred after Iran refused to comply with UNSC Resolution 1696 demanding that it put an end to its uranium enrichment program. These sanctions targeted businesses dealing with the Iranian revolutionary guard, oil and petroleum industries in Iran, banking and insurance, as well as web-hosting services for commercial endeavours.

In the aftermath of the Iran deal brokered by Obama, sanctions imposed by the UN targeting its nuclear program in accordance with US sanctions were all lifted. As a result of UN sanctions being lifted, foreign direct investment increased by nearly 50% and Iran’s imports expanded by nearly 40%, and Iran’s economy started to recover from 2015-2017. This all came to an end following the inauguration of Trump as US president in 2017. On May 8th, Trump pulled the US out of the Iran deal as he promised to his support base. This was followed by the imposition of even more sanctions in November 2018 targeting once more oil and the shipping of oil from and to Iran, with plans being made nearly a year later, to sanction any country that tries to carry out trade with Iran.

These sanctions have had a huge negative toll on Iran’s economy and society. Basic goods became more expensive and Iran’s aging aircraft fleet became increasingly unsafe to travel. They have been left with no way to acquire new aircraft parts or technologies from other countries, along with oil and electric material needed to power airplanes. Iranian News Agencies have stated that there have been 1,500 aircraft related fatalities since the start of the sanctions.

Since 2011, the Iranian rial has plunged, with speculation that it has devalued down to 80% as a result of relentless sanctions being imposed on Iran. In response to these crippling sanctions, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has sought to build a “resistance economy” to circumvent sanctions and maintain socioeconomic stability. Aspects of this “resistance economy” include less dependency on oil, a shift to domestic goods over reliance on imports, and the banning of luxury goods such as computers and mobile phones in order to strengthen the economy.

The Impact of Sanctions on the Coronavirus outbreak in Iran

As a result of the sanctions' negative toll on Iran’s socio-economic stability, Iran was unprepared for the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iran occurred on Feb. 19 in Qom, where Iran reported two deaths from the virus.

Over the next few weeks, the Coronavirus continued to spread in Iran and as of today, the number of deaths in Iran has risen above 850, with one of the latest victims being Ayatollah Hashem Bathayi Golpayegani. As of now, nearly 15000 people have been infected, including various senior officials such as Iran’s deputy health minister and the Iranian vice president for women and family affairs.

Already, as a result of the increasing death toll, graves have already been built in Iran as a result of the outbreak. The appearance of the Coronavirus in Iran has also resulted in COVID-19 being spread across the Middle East, with the first Iraqis being reported to have been infected on February 25th.

The sanctions have negatively impacted Iran’s ability to get aid. On March 12, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that as a result of the various sanctions, Iranians are finding it increasingly difficult to get medicine and medical equipment needed to deal with the outbreak such as respiratory-assistance devices and even basic gloves and masks. In addition, Zarif also tried to reach out to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calling for the UN to push for an end to UN sanctions, claiming that UN sanctions both limit the ability for Iran to acquire medicine and to provide Iranians with subsidies on basic goods.

Other countries have expressed opposition to the sanctions with regards to how it severely hinders Iran’s ability to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. Currently both Russia and China have condemned the continued imposition of sanctions on Iran by the US and its role in worsening the Coronavirus outbreak in Iran, with the Russian foreign ministry blasting the sanctions as “anti-human” and trying to “settle geopolitical accounts” in the midst of an international pandemic.

nctions on Iran, stating that said sanctions were “against humanitarianism” and hampers “Iran's epidemic response & delivery of humanitarian aid by the UN and other organizations”. The US has thus far rejected any effort to lift sanctions, claiming that sanctions will not be lifted as long as Tehran continues with “malicious behavior”. This indicates that even now in the midst of a global pandemic, the US would seek to bring Iran to its knees to fulfill its ambitions in the Persian gulf rather than allow Iran to fight the Coronavirus effectively through lifting the sanctions preventing it from gaining medical supplies.

As the Coronavirus continues to claim more and more lives, the devastation that the pandemic has inflicted in countries that have been severely punished for opposing US imperialistic dominance, such as Iran, demonstrates the tragic toll of US-instigated retribution. As a result of the sanctions, Iran finds it impossible to even receive basic medical supplies to effectively deal with the Coronavirus, leaving its people very vulnerable to the disease.

The tragedy now unfolding on Iran shows the ultimate cost of economic warfare; in the end it is not the leadership, or the regime that the US wants to bend to their will that suffers, but rather, the people of nations that are failing to get the bare necessities for survival, ignored as expendable targets in America’s efforts to topple the Iranian regime.