How the US aggressive, political, and inhumane use of sanctions could turn sanctions into a liability

The basic principle behind the use of sanctions is this: short of changing the behavior of rogue governments by force (war), and to protect the people from their belligerent unrepresentative governments, responsible governments should use economic tools to bring such governments into compliance. Sounds reasonable enough.

In practice, however, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sanctions have been used to isolate and punish governments that do not further the political and economic interests of the Western bloc, regardless of whether they are representative, elected governments or not. By the same logic, governments that are unelected, abusive to the rights of their citizens, but who join the Western bloc are not only immune to Western sanctions, but they are also shielded by Western governments from any criticism even by NGOs.

Such a disconnect between the principled sanctions and the politically driven sanctions is bound to grow beyond ambiguity, unmasked the inhumane, ineffective, self-interested use of sanctions turning it into an effective tool, or even a tool against those who have exploited.

First, when sanctions are deployed with ease against any government, the large number of sanctioned governments around the world could unite to counter the effects of sanctions allowing them to function as a default bloc against the sanctioning side.

The near unanimous Western support of Ukraine against Russia during the ongoing armed conflict, which in reality started in 2014, placed pressure on many countries to take side. Those who took the side or Russia or remained neutral were subjected to sanctions, including Russia and China—the two major global powers in the world. The sheer large number of states impacted by sanctions made it possible for these countries to unite to counteract the effects of sanctions. This is the context in which Belarus finds it way to Iran, culminating the historic visit of the Belarusian president to Tehran this week to sign many strategic agreements between the two countries.

Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi affirmed that the agreements signed by Iran and Belarus, during the visit of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to Tehran today, are fruitful, expressing Tehran's readiness to put its expertise in recent years at the service of Minsk.

Raisi said, during a joint press conference with Lukashenko following the signing of a joint cooperation map between the two countries, that "the agreements that were signed are fruitful and we hope to take good steps in developing relations between the two countries."

 

He added, "Iran intends to expand bilateral relations with Belarus in international organizations."

 

He continued, "We are ready to put our expertise during the past period in the service of Belarus, and the two countries are determined to strengthen their relations in all fields."

 

In turn, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko affirmed that the sanctions imposed on Belarus and Iran represent an opportunity to develop relations between them, stressing the depth of trust between the two countries.

 

"I hope that the road map signed today will help expand relations between the two countries in the long run," Lukashenko said.

 

And the Belarusian state agency Belta reported that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi signed a comprehensive cooperation roadmap between the two countries for the period 2023-2026 after their talks in Tehran.

 

"The roadmap provides for comprehensive cooperation between Belarus and Iran in the political, economic, consular, scientific and technical fields, as well as in the fields of education, culture, arts, media and tourism," the statement said.

 

An agreement was reached on the development and preparation of the document during the meeting between Lukashenko and my president in September 2021 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

 

Earlier, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei discussed, with his Iranian counterpart, Hussein Amir Abdollahian, ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries in conditions of sanctions, and mutual support in international organizations.

 

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that the two sides affirmed "the common interest in building trade and economic cooperation to face the pressures of sanctions," and focusing on the positive dynamics in developing bilateral relations.