Between Convenient Misreading and Mythology: The Iran Sanctions Regime and the Institutionalization
Between Convenient Misreading and Mythology: The Iran Sanctions Regime and the Institutionalization of War
After eight years of Ahmadinejad at the helm of government, Iran is experiencing a new trajectory. A number of promising signs in the weeks and months following Hassan Rouhani’s election as president on 14 June 2013 have given rise to a sense of cautious optimism for change and reform in Iran. Such signs include the release of a limited number of political prisoners and the country’s improving relations with the world, leading some to warily suggest we might be witnessing an unfolding of an Iranian Glasnost. The caution is rooted principally in a desire to avoid a repeat of the setbacks Khatami suffered, both on the domestic front as well as on the international stage, after he swept into office in 1997.[1]
In the early hours of Sunday 24 November, the foreign ministers of Iran and six world powers arrived at a deal that would bolster hopes of ushering in a new era in Iran’s relations with the West, especially over its nuclear programme. Iran agreed to allow greater inspection of its nuclear sites, to limit its nuclear enrichment as well as development at the Arak plant. In return, no nuclear sanctions would be imposed on the country and, according to the While House, it would receive about seven billion dollars of sanctions relief.[2]
The brokered deal offered a level of assurance to the parties directly and indirectly concerned with the outcome of the nuclear negotiations, except Israel and Saudi Arabia. Yet a misreading of the sequence of events that led to this historic agreement is gradually morphing into yet another dangerous ideology of empire.[3]
The Iranian government, previously unwilling to compromise on its nuclear programme, was finally coerced into negotiations once the devastating sanctions imposed on the country drove the suffering Iranian populace to elect, on 14 June 2013, a more accommodating president and in turn paved the way for a deal in Geneva in November of that same year.
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