By Stephen Lendman

April 27, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  Since Iranians ended a generation of CIA-installed fascist dictatorship in 1979, the US has been at war on the Islamic Republic by other means.

The Trump regime escalated it way beyond where its predecessors went, risking confrontation by accident or design.

While US war on Iran is unlikely because of the IRGC’s military capabilities that could hit back hard against regional Pentagon bases and Israel if attacked, what’s unthinkable is possible because of US rage to transform all sovereign independent nations into vassal states it controls.

Cracks in Trump regime sanctions on Iran exist because Russia, China, and other countries maintain friendly diplomatic relations.

They show up in Iranian exports. Last week, Press TV reported that Tehran exported “around $60 billion (worth) of products, services, and energy since the” Trump regime began stiffening illegal sanctions in spring 2018.

According to Iran’s trade ministry,  Iran shipped 135 million metric tons of non-crude goods to other countries since Trump abandoned the JCPOA.

Year-over-year to today, Iranian sponge iron exports increased by 86%.

Shifting from heavy dependence on petroleum exports at a time of Trump regime sanctions, and now rock-bottom oil prices, enabled Tehran to develop export markets for other goods, including petrochemicals, metals, raw materials, food and other products.

In January, Iran estimated its year-over-year steel exports through March would be around 10 million tons, yielding up to $5 billion in revenue.

On Sunday, data from Iran showed steel exports increased by over 25% in the past year through March 19.

Through late March 2020, Iran exported about $32 billion worth of non-oil goods.

Tehran’s deputy industry minister Hossein Modares Khiabani called its achievement “a miracle in the current economic situation of the country.”

In early April, head of the Iran/Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al Eshaq said the Islamic Republic aims to export a record $20 billion of goods to neighboring Iraq in a few years, its second largest foreign market after China.

Iraq relies on Iran for food, natural gas, electricity and construction materials. China is the largest importer of Iranian oil.

Iran’s ability to persevere in the face of Trump regime “maximum pressure” is  a tribute to its ingenuity, peace agenda, and cooperative relations with other countries.