News / Interviews

‘US shooting self in foot with Iran sanctions’

Thursday, 18 October 2018 10:25 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 October 2018 11:31 AM ]

This file photo shows the US Treasury building in Washington.

The United States’ extensive use of sanctions against Iran is going to "diminish" Washington’s economic power in the long term, says an academic.

“I think as well as the addiction to sanctions that has been a part of American foreign policy, now going on [for] three decades... with that the United States is really in the long term backing itself into a corner in terms of its ability to maintain the dollar as the global reserve currency,” David Yaghoubian, professor at California State University, told Press TV in an interview on Thursday.

“Right now with the EU, the Venezuelan Petro, the Chinese Petro-Yuan, the direct currency exchanges being engaged between Russia and China, and Russia, China and Iran, the long-term viability of the petrodollar system and the dollar’s reserve currency is going to be weakened for sure and so this addiction to sanctions in the interest of collectively punishing the entirety of the Iranian population to serve the interest of Israel and the Saudis is going to end up diminishing American economic power in the long-term and so this is really the United States shooting itself in the foot,” he added.

US President Donald Trump announced in May that he was pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Following Trump's decision to stop implementing the deal, Washington reinstated sanctions removed under the agreement while imposing new ones against the Islamic Republic.

A first round of American sanctions took effect in August, targeting Iran's access to the US dollar, metals trading, coal, industrial software, and auto sector. A second round, forthcoming on November 4, will be targeting Iran's energy sector and financial transactions.

The Trump administration has also introduced punitive measures — known as secondary sanctions — against third countries doing business with Iran.