Sanctions on Iran are working

The growing impatience with Iran over its nuclear development program is understandable, but it would be regrettable if impatience led to military action at the very time sanctions are working.
Intelligence experts have indicated that the “ticking clock” on Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon will reach a critical point by next spring.
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for a “red line” which cannot be crossed, and President Obama made it abundantly clear at the United Nations in September that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable.
Both the president’s speech and Netanyahu’s cartoon of a bomb prompted headlines.
But there’s been less attention paid to the impact international economic and political sanctions are having on the Iranian regime.
In the past week alone, the rial — Iran’s currency — has lost more than one-third of its value, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Since January, the country’s currency has lost more than 80 percent of its value.
The Iranian economy is, in the words of Israeli officials, collapsing.
The reason: Sanctions work.
They’re frustratingly slow, and they require more diplomatic and political patience than is easily mustered.
But they work.
If you doubt that, take a look at Myanmar.
A regimen of strict economic sanctions toward the Tatmadaw, the military cronies who have ruled the country formerly known as Burma for more than 20 years, has played a key role in the latest round of reforms and overtures toward openness in that country.
At first, Myanmar’s leadership turned to China for economic support as a way of circumventing the U.S.-led sanctions.
But that relationship grew increasingly uneasy for reasons that are both historic and geographical.
The only route toward a more stable future for the country was to reform in hopes of having the sanctions eased. And that’s what has been happening since the second half of last year.
It’s far too early to tell whether sanctions will lead to similar success in Iran, and optimism is in short supply when it comes to the Middle East.
But clearly the sanctions are taking their economic toll. It may be just a matter of time before they have a geopolitical impact as well. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]