Title: The culture and politics of Iran sanctions

Authors: Abu Mohammad Asgarkhani

Addresses: Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Enghelab Ave., P.O. Box 1466-6448, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: In this paper it is argued that the US policy towards Iran gradually was transformed into a culture of sanctions which grew in a prepared medium to frustrate Iranians. The logic of sanctions imposed by OFAC, UK, and the EU is cultural, depicting Iranians as imminent foes of international security and finally holding that Iran is in material breach of the NPT and the UN Charter. This cultural syndrome calls, on the one hand, for the maintenance of international peace and security, and undermines the same peace and security by acting in contravention of human rights, by behaving contrary to the right to development, by proceeding against the principle of neutrality, by infringing the freedom of navigation, by denying international free trade, and by ruling against bilateral and multilateral treaties, on the other hand. This predetermined culture of sanctions suggests that the designers, like certain species, produce the same substance that they want to abolish.

Keywords: sanctions culture; cultural syndrome; international security; UN Resolutions; OFAC; Iran; nuclear security; politics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNUCL.2011.040363

International Journal of Nuclear Law, 2011 Vol.3 No.3, pp.193 - 197

Published online: 14 Feb 2015 *

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