Kimberly Ann Elliott
Iran is one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus. As of March 30, it was behind only the United States, China, Italy, Spain, Germany and France in the number of confirmed cases, with more than 40,000. Its death rate is also one of the world’s highest, at around 7 percent, though it is well behind Italy’s staggering 11.4 percent.
Yet in the face of this public health crisis, President Donald Trump is continuing his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with crippling U.S. economic sanctions that were imposed after Trump unilaterally abandoned the international nuclear agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program in May 2018. As recently as two weeks ago, the Trump administration imposed further sanctions against Iran as punishment for its behavior in the Middle East. A decision last fall to tighten sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran made it nearly impossible to actually use long-standing exceptions for shipments of food and medical supplies to Iran—from any country, not just the United States.
This hard line from the Trump administration of maintaining sanctions during a global pandemic isn’t limited to Iran. It has kept stringent sanctions in place against a number of other highly vulnerable countries, including North Korea and Venezuela. While North Korea denies that it has any coronavirus cases, it has reportedly been seeking assistance from aid agencies to get more test kits and personal protective equipment for health workers.
Venezuela has reported just 129 confirmed cases and three deaths from COVID-19 as of March 30. While there is no way to know how accurate those numbers are, it would be devastating if the virus gains a foothold there, given the political dysfunction and near collapse of Venezuela’s health system during its years-long economic crisis. The U.S. pressure on President Nicolas Maduro increased markedly last week when a federal grand injury indicted him for drug trafficking. While that move is unlikely to directly affect Venezuela’s public health situation in the short run, it could further delay a political resolution in Caracas if Maduro fears being extradited to the U.S. if he steps down.
Ahead of their virtual meeting last week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to the leaders of the G-20 encouraging them to waive sanctions against vulnerable countries “to ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and COVID-19 medical support.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also called for the lifting of sectoral sanctions, noting that “impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us.” She cited reports that sanctions had impeded access to essential medicines and equipment in Iran, including respirators and personal protective equipment like masks and gowns. There are also signs that the virus is spilling over to neighboring countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Formal action by the U.N. Security Council to suspend any sanctions seems unlikely given the shutdown of face-to-face meetings. Many U.N. diplomats also view the calls from China and Russia to ease sanctions on humanitarian grounds with cynicism, since both countries were calling for that even before the pandemic hit. Regardless, the White House is likely to oppose any U.N. action to loosen sanctions because it could be difficult to reverse later.
Whatever one thinks of the arguments for and against economic sanctions, the priority now should be saving lives and preventing the further spread of the virus.
But Iran, with one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world, remains the source of greatest immediate concern, and it is the situation most amenable to a unilateral U.S. policy change. Iran’s economy has been devastated by American sanctions and the Iranian government’s own mismanagement, which is undermining its ability to respond to the pandemic. Some Iranian researchers estimate that the death toll from COVID-19 could rise to as much as 3.5 million—three times the number killed in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Yet the Trump administration continues to ratchet up the pressure. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department announced new sanctions restricting transactions with Iranian companies marketing petrochemical exports. To add insult to injury, the recent plunge in oil prices is sharply cutting the value of the little bit of oil that Iran still manages to sell internationally. With Iran’s oil export sector already mostly shut down, the new sanctions are primarily symbolic and are unlikely to have much economic impact. The message, however, is hardly one designed to foster cooperation and assistance amid a pandemic.
Long before COVID-19, there were concerns about the humanitarian impact of U.S. sanctions in Iran. The sanctions include exceptions for “the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical devices to Iran”—the problem is how to finance them. Most Iranian banks are on U.S. lists designating them for sanctions because of their alleged involvement with nuclear proliferation or terrorism. European and other third party banks and financial institutions face sanctions themselves if they do business with those designated Iranian entities. There was an exception allowing Iran’s Central Bank to participate in transactions involving humanitarian imports, but the Trump administration effectively negated that last September when it designated the Central Bank as a terrorist entity.
Last October, after a number of NGOs and governments raised concerns about the impact of the Central Bank designation on Iran’s access to food and medical supplies, the Trump administration announced a new mechanism aimed at addressing the problem. Under the new rule, humanitarian transactions involving Iran’s Central Bank might be allowed as long as the third party financial institutions involved undertake “enhanced due diligence” and seek the Treasury Department’s written approval in advance. In explaining the new mechanism, the administration noted that financial institutions using it would have to provide “a great deal of information on a monthly basis.”
Human Rights Watch immediately released a report documenting the shortages in medical supplies due to the sanctions and arguing that the new mechanism would not work. “Trump administration officials claim they stand with the Iranian people, but the overbroad and burdensome U.S. sanctions regime is harming Iranians’ right to health, including access to life-saving medicines,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said at the time.
Whatever one thinks of the arguments for and against economic sanctions on Iran, or any of these other countries, the coronavirus pandemic changes everything. The priority now should be saving lives and preventing the further spread of the virus. To date, Trump has been sticking to his “America First,” isolationist credo and largely ignoring the rest of the world. That needs to change, for all our sakes.
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