It appears that the global sanctions efforts against Iran have ultimately proven beneficial for Iran’s terrorist designated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, similar to how the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war with more than a million casualties served to empower the Islamic Republic of Iran forty years ago.
In this regard, Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said at the opening of Iran’s strategic exhibition of self-sufficiency: “All our progress has been made during the sanctions.”
Sanctions mean war for the Islamic Republic which can be a perfect excuse to frame any protestor as the enemy and legitimize their detainment or execution.
The IRGC has used the economic turmoil caused by the global sanctions as an opportunity to seep into Iran’s political scene, an act deemed illegal even by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini, and have successfully occupied the most important roles within Iran’s government after the last elections that saw Ebrahim Raisi appointed as the new president.
Under normal circumstances, any commodity can be purchased from the international market, but in the era of sanctions, the situation is different and in addition to financial resources, shortcuts are needed.
To this end, there is a need for a power that does not hold itself accountable, and the IRGC, Ali Khamenei’s economic and military arm, seeks to catch fish from the sanctions muddy waters that affect the livelihood of the people the most.
There have been a number of sanctions against Iran imposed by a number of countries, especially the United States, and international entities.
The United States sanctions against Iran were imposed in November 1979 after radical students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took hostages.
The UN Security Council passed a number of resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, following the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors regarding Iran’s non-compliance with its safeguards agreement and the Board’s finding that Iran’s nuclear activities raised questions within the competency of the Security Council.
The European Union has imposed restrictions on cooperation with Iran in foreign trade, financial services, energy sectors, and technologies, and banned the provision of insurance and reinsurance by insurers in member states to Iran and Iranian-owned companies.
Source: Iran International
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