The US has been imposing economic sanctions on Iran for decades, ostensibly aimed at stopping its nuclear program and its “destabilizing” behavior. While US sanctions have clearly caused extensive economic damage to Iran, they seem to have failed to achieve those two stated objectives. So, legislation has been proposed in the US Congress to make permanent the law which provides the legal authority for US sanctions, the 1996 Iran Sanctions Act, by removing its sunset clauses, which require review of the sanctions on a periodic basis.
“The Iran Sanctions Act is one of the most important tools in U.S. law to compel Iran to abandon its dangerous and destabilizing behavior,” House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement, reported The Hill. “This bill takes the long overdue step of striking the arbitrary sunset from the law, so that sanctions will only be lifted if Iran stops its threatening behavior. Iran can’t run out the clock on U.S. law.”
A companion piece of legislation will also soon be introduced in the Senate by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
Sanctions, like war, are easy to start but almost impossible to stop.
