The Real Reason for the Sanctions on Iran

On  October 10, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order that carries out new sanctions against Iran that Congress approved this summer, according to a statement by the National Security Council published on on the White House website. 

The stated reason for the increased sanctions is "to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program." 

That is patently false.

The real reason for the increasingly onerous economic sanctions directed against Iran has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with its nuclear energy program. 

All sixteen American intelligence agencies [yeah, there really are 16 of them--your tax dollars at work!] as well as Israeli intelligence--are unanimous in attesting and stating publicly that the Iranians are not building nuclear weapons. Source, New York Times:  U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb

The Iranian leaders themselves have respeatedly stated that atomic weapons  are "un-Islamic."  In April 2012, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa (religious edict) declaring the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are to be haram (prohibited in Islam).  Source: Tehran Times: Ayatollah: production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are prohibited in Islam

Iinstead, the Iranians have repeatedly called for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, which would mean that Israeli [which, unlilke Iran, has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]  would have to dispose of or disarm all of the atomic bombs and warheads in their arsenal.

The inarguably real reason for the sanctions is to foment regime change in Tehran.

The Obama Administration has convinced or browbeaten their supine allies into imposing economic sanctions, whose direct impact is to inflict misery and hardship on 74 milion ordinary Iranians.  And then, their Machiavellian plan is that those unhappy Iranians will revolt and overthrow the mullahs and ayatollas.

Well, there's no doubt that the first part of the plan is working.  The Iranian currency is hyperinflating--according to Forbes, it collapsed 40% in value last week alone.  Ordinary Iranian citizens are protesting in the streets that they can't even afford the basic necessities of life such as rice.

But there is no cause-and-effect relationship between the real suffering of the Iranian people and a wished-for revolt against the government.

Instead, it's just possible that the sanctions can backfire and result in a hardening of Iranian resolve to resist the pressure from America by reinforcing Iran's ties with its close neighbors, especailly China and India, whose combined population of two and a half billion people are big customers of Iranian oil.  

In fact, Iran's oil: Iran's oil exports increased +10% in September 2012 on higher sales to China, according to Dow-Jones.

The Iraian people are tough: they fought a war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq [which was supported by the United States] that lasted from 1980 to 1988 and in which Iran lost between 320,000 and 720,000 soldiers and militamen killed and in which more than 100,000 civilians were killed on both sides.