The new sanctions came just after Donald Trump wrote on his Twitter account that he is welcoming negotiations with Iran; Brian Hook also told media that Trump is enthusiastic to have talks with Iran ‘without any conditions’ to reach a new deal – and certainly he didn’t hesitate to clarify that the only precondition is to include missile program into the deal. The latest measures are supposed to target Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei and a number of IRGC commanders and will have Foreign Minister Zarif to join the club reportedly by next week.
Regardless of the assumed impact of these sanctions, it reveals two significant points about US foreign policy. First, the sanctions regime has been supposed to exert ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran, crippling it and finally bringing it to its knees. I can actually remember every single US president speaking of the new round of ‘most crippling sanctions’ against Tehran at least for the last three decades. Current administration began with much ado about zeroing Iran’s oil export as the core of its policy to change Iran’s behavior and contain its regional influence. Sanctions on the petrochemical industry have been the most serious step so far which made no serious harm to Iran’s economy and its resistance. Putting people like Ayatollah Khamenei and Dr. Zarif on the list of sanctions is an indicator that the Americans do not have anything serious at hand to consider for sanctions. In other words, the mere fact that Washington’s toughest reaction to the targeting of its $200-million drone by the IRGC neither is military response nor even cyber warfare, as it was claimed without any evidence, shows how paralyzed US feels itself in front of the Islamic Republic.
Leader of the Revolution never makes a foreign trip, let alone to the United States and does not have any money overseas to be frozen. IRGC commanders have no interest in the US and see resistance against the Great Satan as a value, ready to be martyred on that way. Therefore, the White House is well aware of the futility of these sanctions and is just doing this to sell it to the American public opinions.
Nevertheless, this can take us to the second point. US officials claim that the sanctions are on assets and properties of Ayatollah Khamenei across the world and his access to them is now cut. This reflects a lack of accurate knowledge among American officials when it comes to structures, policies, and people of Iran. This claim is based on a 2013 report by the Reuters which introduced a number of state organizations as belonging to Ayatollah Khamenei. Of course, at that time the concept of ‘fake news’ was not ubiquitous and it was easier to sell misinformation to a public opinion without going verified. The report had considered the assets of the organizations and entities and private properties of the Leader estimating their value at billions of dollars.
Regardless of anti-Iran excitement that it raised, the report was significant at the time because it showed how Iranian dissidents have found their way into mainstream media and try to promote their own agenda to media corporations. The same trend has also happened in radical think tanks as well; dissident Iranians have found a good market to turn their nationality into a valuable asset and make money with that. A most recent example of such experts is shaparak shajarizadeh, a typical Iranian woman who removed her Hijab in public and was arrested for a short time before she fled the country a while ago and now is being invited to various meetings and events to talk as an expert on Iran. This type of so-called Iran experts depict Iran in a way best serving and maintaining their own interests and ‘market’.
Since Trump has come to power, choosing John Bolton as his national security advisor, his beloved MEK terrorist group has also joined the club; either through the persona account of Heshmat Alavi or thousands of Twitter trolls, the terrorist group is benefitting from post-truth era to introduce its own anti-Iran campaign and narrative as truth. During Trump administration, the list has grown and names of such ‘Iran sellers’ can go on and on. Right after the United States libeled IRGC as a terrorist group, Instagram didn’t spare a second to remove a series of Iranian accounts with an excuse of abiding by the US laws. But it turned into a gaffe when the list included people who had long left IRGC or never had any ties at all! It implied that Iranian dissidents had told the Instagram team whom to remove and the list, in fact, included those accounts they disliked and they were trying to justify it with American law. ‘Iran Disinfo’ project which is turning into a scandal being paid for by the State Department from taxpayer dollars is another example. A group of hawkish Iranian dissidents were targeting other Iranian diaspora activists who are against military action against Iran.
What the long list tells us is that after getting into media and think tanks, the self-claimed and self-promoting experts on Iran have gradually found a footstep in the administration as well; and it will be no exaggeration to claim that the latest sanctions are nothing but their impact on the White House abusing their links to satisfy their hatred toward Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The divided foreign policy of Trump administration is now even worsened by abuse and control of these friends of John Bolton.