'Sanctions on Iran hurts population as a whole'

While the ostensible justification for the sanctions is to pressure the Iranian state regarding its nuclear capacity, the sanctions are causing indisicriminate harm to the population as a whole, professor Joy Gordon from U.S. Fairfield University told Trend, commenting on the effect of the numerous sanctions imposed on Iran because of country's nuclear activities.

The West accuses Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program but Tehran rejects the accusations, saying its nuclear program is aimed at power production and other peaceful purposes.

Professor Gordon believes that people should not ignore the ethical problems raised by the current sanctions on Iran.

"While certainly these measures have not been as damaging as those imposed by the Security Council on Iraq in the 1990s, these sanctions are in fact indiscriminate in their impact on Iran's civilian population," she said.

At the end of 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, a part of which is aimed at choking off Iran's crucial oil revenue by targeting its central bank and financial sector.

The law allows the Obama administration to slap sanctions on foreign banks that engage in oil transactions with Iran's central bank and cut them off from the American financial system.

The unprecedentedly tough measure resulted in heightened tensions between the West and Tehran, with Israel and the United States even talking about launching military strikes against Iran' s nuclear sites.

"The sanctions are said to be "targeting" particular companies and sectors, by compromising Iran's access to international banks, and its imports and exports, Gordon noted. "But the effect is to cause disruption to the economy as a whole. We are seeing more reports of hyperinflation and shortages of certain goods".

The tensions relatively eased recently as Iran and the six world powers agreed to resume talks on its controversial nuclear program.

According to the latest reports, the mentioned meeting between Iran and the Six powers will take place in mid April.


/Trend/