Iran
Sanctions Are Biological Warfare Against Civilians
This is not an economic policy. It is the collective
punishment of civilians. It is an act of biological
warfare against children, the elderly, and people of
all ages.
By Richard Eskow
March 30, 2020
"Information
Clearing House"
- The
world was rightfully shocked and outraged in 2005 by
the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the
young Iranian woman shot during a protest.
“She was a person full of joy,” said her music
teacher, who was with her when she died. “She was a
beam of light.”
According
to her teacher, Neda’s last words were, “I’m
burning. I’m burning.”
In
the United States, politicians from both parties
mourned Neda. Where are they now, as the Trump
Administration tightens sanctions against Iran? This
is not an economic policy.
It is the collective punishment of civilians.
It is an act of biological warfare against children,
the elderly, and people of all ages.
That may
sound like heated rhetoric, but it’s the product of
careful analysis.
The
Sick and the Innocent
Even
before the pandemic, Iranian civilians were
suffering and dying as a result of US sanctions. A
report from
Human Rights Watch
found that “current economic sanctions, despite the
humanitarian exemptions, are causing unnecessary
suffering to Iranian citizens afflicted with a range
of diseases and medical conditions.”
An
article in The
Lancet medical journal concluded in November
2018 that sanctions “will inevitably lead to a
decrease in survival of children with cancer.”
“A decrease
in survival of children.”
An
Iranian physician who practices nuclear medicine
wrote in another
medical journal that sanctions have made it
extremely difficult for medical companies to obtain
supplies, with nuclear medicine further complicated
by its use of material regulated by atomic
agencies. The conclusion: “The most critical
patients have been affected the worst including
children, patients with cancer, hemophilia,
cardiovascular disease, asthma and epilepsy.”
That was
before the pandemic. And now?
“Iran
is Italy,” said
a former State Department official,
“only on steroids.”
The Iranian
people are being deprived of critical medical
supplies even as the pandemic strikes in its full
force. Sanctions don’t target Iran’s leaders, who
will in all likelihood receive the care they need.
It targets civilians, which very likely violates
international law, and therefore US law.
|
