Page 4 - IRANRptApr19
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1.0 Executive summary
US State Department officials have warned that more sanctions targeted at Iran are on the way. The officials addressed a meeting on “Sanctions: A Key Foreign Policy Tool” held at the department in Washington, DC on March 13.
David Peyman, deputy assistant secretary of state for counter threat finance and sanctions, told audience members that the sanctions imposed on Iran since last year after the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal—amounting to the largest sanctions package any country has used against another in modern-day history and covering 850 individuals and entities as well as entire sectors of the Iranian economy—were only the beginning.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared in a March 18 speech that Tehran is preparing a lawsuit to be lodged “in a competent court inside Iran” against US individuals involved in imposing sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran has accused the US of creating a “war” situation with its reintroduction of heavy sanctions on November 5 designed to force the Iranians to the table to renegotiate their Middle East policies and activities. The second-phase sanctions target Iran’s oil, gas, petrochemical, shipping and banking industries, dealing a potentially crippling blow to an economy already plunged into recession and crisis by the first-phase sanctions that took effect on August 7.
The sanctions bring to an end all the economic benefits the Barack Obama administration granted Tehran after the US and five other major powers, along with Iran, signed the nuclear deal in late 2015. The accord is supposed to shield Iran from crippling sanctions in return for the Iranians limiting their enrichment of uranium to close off their potential road to the development of a nuclear weapon. But, despite the strong protests of all the other signatories—Iran, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China—and with the vocal backing of Israel, Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the multilateral pact in May, determined to force further concessions on Iran’s role and activities in the Middle East.
The US initially pushed hard to rapidly bring crude shipments down to zero, but on November 5, the US confirmed that 180-day exemptions allowing for the continued importing of Iranian oil had been granted to eight countries—China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. However, the waivers have been granted on the condition that the countries endeavour to gradually end the purchasing of crude from Iran.
Some internationally renowned economists, such as Steve Hanke at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have estimated that Iran’s annual inflation rate is running at more than 270% compared to the official claim of just 13.5%.
The IMF predicted on November 13 that inflation in Iran would grow to more than 40% at the end of 2018. In a report on Middle Eastern economies, the Fund also repeated a previous forecast released in its latest World Economic Outlook on October 8 that the ultra-aggressive US sanctions regime
4 IRAN Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com