The US has been imposing varying levels of sanctions on Iran for the past 33 years. Recently, the European Union backed the US sanctions on the nation. As things stand now, according to the US Treasury website, there is a complete ban on the sale of commercial aircraft, all aircraft material, any petroleum trade, any bank/financial institution interaction, and any purchase or sale worth more than 100 USD. That last one was just to make sure all the bases were covered. Long before the EU jumped on the sanction wagon, the effects were felt by Iranians. Commercial aircrafts have been deteriorating for the past 33 years, and Boeing can’t trade with Iran. Iranian airlines are considered to be significantly under the International Civil Aviation Organization standards because of that specific sanction.

 The Iranian economy is also, obviously, affected in a devastating fashion. That is the chief goal of these sanctions on Iran: to cripple the nation’s economy to encourage the leaders in Iran to cooperate with the wishes of the West. The logic behind these sanctions has been proven time and time again. Look at Cuba. We’ve had some pretty harsh sanctions imposed on them for the past half of a century in efforts to get them to become more democratic. That’s been successful, right? No? They’re still communist? Oh…well, how about North Korea? Iraq? Libya? Those all worked out well, right?

The sanctions don’t really seem to affect those in the ruling class in the countries to which we restrict trade, as much as they affect the common citizens. Even if the sanctions did affect the leaders of the nations with which we are in disagreement, the act of sanctioning to increase cooperation is pretty similar to starving your pet bear so that it will learn to be more amicable. It doesn’t quite add up.

According to some shady sources, probably the same sources that found nuclear material in Iraq, Iran may be working on creating nuclear weapons. However, the UN has no knowledge of any nuclear program in Iran, and they are currently investigating further. Regardless of whether or not UN officials find any evidence of a nuclear program in Iran, the sanctions will likely continue. If not from the EU, they almost certainly will continue from the US.

Even if nuclear material, or even full-scale nuclear weapons, are found in Iran I don’t think the sanctions should continue. If they have nuclear weapons…so what? A number of countries currently have nuclear weapons, even nations we might consider unstable, but none of them have used nuclear weapons. The only nation to have used a nuclear weapon for anything more than testing, is the United States. Other nations don’t do it because they know the entire world would turn against them.

If Iran is actively seeking to start their own nuclear program, it is probably only to increase their political gravity. It is probably an attempt to get the US and the West in general to interact with them as political equals. I think we should beat them to the punch and make a conscious decision to treat Khamenei as an equal when in discussion, before they start building nuclear weapons. Perhaps then, a nuclear program might not seem like a more pressing need than improving infrastructure in Iran.