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52 Opinion IRAN BLOG:
Bully boy Trump mocks Iranians with ‘GoT’ economic winter meme
Will Conroy in Prague
Some things require little analysis. Let’s just ask what kind of a jerk would take pleasure in mimicking a Game of Thrones advertising campaign – “Sanctions Are Coming, November 5” – in a way that will have the effect of menacing ordinary Iranians with the prospect of more economic misery.
And let’s be done with it, for the plain fact is that on November 2, without giving any guarantees for supplies of basic foods and medicine, Donald J. Trump announced that in three days’ time all US sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal would be reimposed on Iran.
The referencing of the fantasy TV series’ meme – “Winter Is Coming” – which the HBO TV network and stars of the hit show immediately objected to occurred as the US president warned the Islamic Republic was about to face "the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran" with the existing sanctions targeting to be expanded to include the country’s oil, gas, petrochemicals, shipping and banking sectors.
The one concession was that eight countries – which various news agency reports said would include Turkey, India, Italy, Japan and South Korea – would not be penalised by the US for continuing to import Iranian oil, although they would be expected to gradually reduce shipments to zero.
According to the IMF, the US sanctions campaign has already plunged Iran into recession, and one might think that a civilised nation would need to form some kind of international consensus before subjecting a country of 81mn people to such distress. But Washington, aside from the vocal support it receives from a few allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, is going it alone. The other five major powers that signed the nuclear accord that is supposed to shield Iran from crippling sanctions – France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China – have stayed in the agreement, pointing out that
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Game of Thrones producer HBO responded to Trump's use of its imagery by saying it "would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes".
the Iranians remain in full compliance with its measures restricting the Iranian nuclear development programme.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the Trump administration might ease up on Iran a little when the campaigning fever dissolves after the November 6 US midterm elections, but don’t count with it. On November 2, it also emerged that European governments have so far failed to persuade the White House to ensure Iran will remain able to take delivery of basic foods and medicine after the imposition of the blanket sanctions.
“Thousands of patients... at risk”
“There’s no doubt that the lives of thousands of patients will be at risk,” Ahmad Ghavideh of Iran’s haemophilia society told The Guardian by phone from Tehran after the newspaper discovered that the UK, French and German ambassadors
to the US made joint visits to the American Treasury and State Departments in September in an unsuccessful effort to persuade the administration to produce a “white list”. Such a list would give clear guidelines on what channels European banks and companies should follow to conduct legitimate transactions with Iran without fear of future penalties.
Humanitarian supplies are officially exempted from the sanctions, but risk-averse foreign banks and companies have in the past steered clear of all transactions with Iran for fear of being penalised. Severe shortages of life-saving medicines and food staples were experienced by the country in the years preceding the 2015 agreement endorsed by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
“We are expecting our American friends to make some gestures on humanitarian goods,” Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to Washington was quoted by the newspaper report as saying. “Of course humanitarian goods are not sanc- tioned. But the fact is the banks are so terrified of sanctions that they don’t want to do anything with Iran. It means that in