FOR GOVERNMENTS THE world over, slapping sanctions on the Islamic Republic has proved popular and uncontroversial at home. America started it in 1979 in response to its diplomats being taken hostage in Tehran. It added more restrictions after Iranian-sponsored militants bombed its barracks and embassy in Lebanon in 1983, then tightened them further in the 1990s and again after 9/11, for which Iran was not responsible but which heightened sensitivities in the West.After 2005 America got company, thanks to growing worries about Iran’s nuclear programme. Rich European and Asian countries and other governments sympathetic to America, from Australia to India, jumped on the bandwagon, as did the UN. After 2010 the screw was tightened once more until in November last year negotiators agreed to ease sanctions for the duration of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
America had previously sanctioned Iran for sponsorship of international terrorism, domestic human-rights abuses and arms proliferation, but over the past decade most sanctions were a response to the nuclear programme. At first they were aimed at some of the companies and individuals involved, then at...
from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeOq1
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