IN a very sad development on May 19, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi along with other Iranian officials died in an air crash along the Iran-Azerbaijan border. The painful and an ironic fact is that, owing to the US imposed sanction, the boarded Bell 212 helicopter–the US made in model since 1979– could not have been sold to Iran. Reportedly, this chronic technical flaw is one of the major causes of this air crash. Iran’s former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blames US sanctions for Raisi’s crash. Arguably, because of the high risks of human cost involvement, Washington must revisit its harsh economic sanctions policy on Tehran.
First the Muslim world by and large is aggrieved because of the loss of a heroic leader like Abraham Raisi who was a great source of inspiration for the independence of the Palestinians and Kashmiris. Needless to say, on this sensitive moment, the government and the people of Pakistan stand with the people of Iran. Ebrahim Raisi has left behind a treasure of unforgettable memories of his last visit to Pakistan.
A legacy of US sanctions on Iran: For decades, Iran has been a victim of US harsh economic sanctions, with the first measures imposed against Iran in the early 1980s. Arguably, the world Court (ICJ) between 1979 and 1981—heard two cases filed by the United States vs Iran regarding economic sanctions as countermeasures in response to Iran’s breaches of international obligations; and in both cases, the tribunal was invited to consider the legality or legitimacy of the US countermeasures. In the aviation arbitration, France asked the tribunal to rule on the merits that the United States had engaged in illegal unilateral self-help which could not be justified under the international law of countermeasures. But the World Court upheld the US plea.
And yet, these sanctions –were further expanded in 1995 on the US accusation of Iranian sponsorship of terrorism accompanied by the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—including a comprehensive embargo on bilateral trade imposed via E.O. 12957 and E.O. 12959 signed by President Clinton. Nonetheless, in 1996, sanctions also isolated Iran from non-US energy companies as well. This move was the result of a fascist concept of secondary sanctions—technically and legally distinct from primary sanctions which target US trade with a foreign country. These secondary sanctions target non-US people or entities from engaging in trade with another foreign country, meaning thereby establishing US leverage over international markets under secondary sanctions.
Subsequently in June 2007, the US State of Florida enacted a boycott on companies trading with Iran and Sudan. In the same year, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1747 which tightened sanctions on Iran in connection with its nuclear program. Moreover, in 2018, the then US President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reinstate sanctions on Iran had a fatal impact on the Iranian aviation sector.
The irony is that the US imposed sanctions on Iran during the 2019 COVID-led pandemic which had a harrowing impact on Iranians’ health. While the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanctions regime. As per the findings of the Human Rights Watch in practice these exemptions had failed to offset the strong reluctance of US and European companies and banks to risk incurring sanctions and legal action by exporting or financing exempted humanitarian goods. The result has been to deny Iranians access to essential medicines and to impair their right to health.
The involvement of human cost doctrine: it is alleged that unilateral coercive measures—primarily in the form of economic sanctions, both comprehensive and targeted—have been widely documented as negatively impacting the civilians and violate their economic, social and cultural human rights of the citizens in the target country.
That said, the relevant international standards do not include codified international laws, but rather customary international law by state consensus. In this context, a state can enforce its laws and influence extraterritorially are relatively few—a state must be able to prove that its actions fall into one of four categories: territoriality (a state may pass laws governing people and property in its own territory); nationality (a state may regulate the conduct of its citizens in any part of the world); protective principle (a state may regulate conduct of foreigners that could prejudice its most vital interests) and passive personality (a state has jurisdiction over conduct directed against the welfare of its own citizens.
In 2020, the Trump Administration had imposed sanctions on the ICC’s Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to investigate the US personnel’s alleged crimes in Palestine and Afghanistan. However, US President, US Secretary of State and the Treasury Secretary can all issue waivers on economic sanctions as long as they report their decision to the Congress. US sanctions mantra & Pak-Iran Gas Pipeline Project: Since 1994, the Iran-Pak Gas Pipeline project remains under discussion between Tehran and Islamabad. US sanctions against Iran are a major hindrance for most gas pipeline projects in the region. Recently, the Biden Administration said the US State Department was monitoring the planned pipeline between Iran and Pakistan.
Last month, Pakistan said that it does not need a waiver from US sanctions to build its portion of a pipeline to import natural gas from Iran. “It is a segment of the pipeline which is being built inside Pakistani territory. So, we do not believe that at this point there is room for any discussion or waiver from a third party,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement. To fulfil the rights of its people, Pakistan justifiably reserves the right under the doctrine of states’ strategic autonomy to collaborate this initiative with Iran.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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