Tehran, Iran – When the United States threatened an “economic D-Day” for Iran, announcing a series of new sanctions against Tehran, President Donald Trump’s administration said it was seeking to cripple its adversary economically. To many Iranians, though, the latest measures also appear targeted at them, rather than the Iranian government and its leadership. Like previous waves of sanctions imposed by the US and its allies on Iran, the latest measures again disproportionately impact the country’s civilian population.
And one sector in particular appears poised to take a major hit: education. Previous sanctions have contributed to making Iranians poorer by triggering a currency collapse, leading to surging food and medicine prices. They have financially isolated Iranians through blocked bank transfers and digital exclusion through restricted software, cloud services and platforms.
The US travel ban, which counts Iran among its primary targets, has dashed countless dreams. But the latest steps go one step further, and come at a time when the Iranian government has also ramped up domestic pressure. As part of “Operation Economic Outcast”, the Trump administration last week expanded secondary sanctions in five more key economic sectors impacting civilian life — aviation, digital assets, gold, shipping and technology.
Those sectors were added to a comprehensive list that includes financial sectors, construction and manufacturing, among others. Any person anywhere in the world operating in, or engaging in any significant transaction with, or providing any assistance to anyone operating in those sectors may be designated as a blocked party under US secondary sanctions. That could bring about asset freezes and an effective quarantine from US-linked and much of global commerce.
That is why, despite some humanitarian-linked protections, the years-long “maximum pressure” campaign of the US against Iran has had wide-ranging impacts on civilian life, including availability of some medicine and medical equipment. Last week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury also indefinitely suspended education-related general licences that permitted limited cooperation with Iran by American universities or people, including but not limited to academic exchange programmes and certain nonprofit education services. The US also indefinitely suspended another general licence that permitted services in support of professional and amateur sports activities and exchanges involving Iran.
Another suspension targets services related to conferences in the US or third parties, while OFAC also suspended its permissions for certain non-commercial, personal remittances to or from people in Iran. A very short wind-down period has been set for existing activities in all those areas until September 8, after which activities will require specific OFAC authorisation. Washington has further emphasised that both US and non-US people anywhere risk being sanctioned if they engage with Iran or its Persian Gulf Strait Authority and other organisations in connection with obtaining guarantees of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
