The Blockade and the Bomb
The suffocating blockade that the United States is imposing on Iran is not only unjust and contrary to international law; it is also being imposed through threats, extortion and coercion. It will have consequences that may surprise Donald Trump himself, who does not seem to realize what he is doing. This kind of blockade, which he is dragging Europe and other weak and fragile states into, has only ever been imposed on North Korea after it conducted a nuclear test and declared that it possessed a nuclear weapon. If Trump now intends to impose it on Iran — a state that, according to the complicit International Atomic Energy Agency, is not a nuclear power — what is to stop Iran from actually embarking on a nuclear weapons program, since it is already being subjected to these sanctions?
Trump and the handful of thugs he surrounds himself with do not grasp the danger of what they are doing, nor do they understand that Iran will not be able to withstand and break this blockade unless it becomes a nuclear state with the means to threaten and deter aggressor nations. The West’s plan to transfer Iran’s nuclear file to the Security Council instead of the IAEA will only give Iran an additional incentive to move as quickly as possible toward conducting its first nuclear test.
Iran has long maintained that it refrains from pursuing such a program because of the supreme leader’s fatwa, or religious ruling, prohibiting nuclear weapons and condemning their production. Yet this justification, despite its validity, is neither the only nor the primary reason. The deeper concern has always been the fear that a nuclear weapons program would trigger the kind of suffocating international blockade Tehran has consistently sought to avoid. If maximum sanctions are now to encircle Iran for no reason other than the wishes of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his subservient Trump, then there is little reason left for restraint. Even countries friendly to Iran — including Russia and China, which oppose its acquisition of nuclear weapons — could hardly blame Tehran for proceeding down this path to shield 90 million citizens from a slow death.
We will not dwell on Iran’s ability to circumvent and evade sanctions, a skill it has honed over the 47 years since the revolution. Nor will we discuss the Caspian Sea, which serves as a back door for Iranian trade with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan — the countries that share its waters. Instead, let us consider Iran’s land borders: Iraq, the longest at 1,500 kilometers; Turkmenistan, at 990 kilometers; Pakistan, at roughly 950; Afghanistan, about 900; Azerbaijan, around 600; Turkey, approximately 500; and finally Armenia, with only about 44 kilometers of shared border. All of these countries maintain friendly relations and commercial ties with Iran, and U.S. sanctions will not be able to halt this cooperation.
This is especially true given that much of this cooperation consists of trade and shared interests among border tribes, clans and villages with transport fleets operating outside direct state control. The sad irony is that the Israeli-American aggression against Iran was not launched from any of these countries — and there is no need to spell out the rest.
Trump and the handful of thugs he surrounds himself with do not grasp the danger of what they are doing, nor do they understand that Iran will not be able to withstand and break this blockade unless it becomes a nuclear state with the means to threaten and deter aggressor nations. The West’s plan to transfer Iran’s nuclear file to the Security Council instead of the IAEA will only give Iran an additional incentive to move as quickly as possible toward conducting its first nuclear test.
Iran has long maintained that it refrains from pursuing such a program because of the supreme leader’s fatwa, or religious ruling, prohibiting nuclear weapons and condemning their production. Yet this justification, despite its validity, is neither the only nor the primary reason. The deeper concern has always been the fear that a nuclear weapons program would trigger the kind of suffocating international blockade Tehran has consistently sought to avoid. If maximum sanctions are now to encircle Iran for no reason other than the wishes of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his subservient Trump, then there is little reason left for restraint. Even countries friendly to Iran — including Russia and China, which oppose its acquisition of nuclear weapons — could hardly blame Tehran for proceeding down this path to shield 90 million citizens from a slow death.
We will not dwell on Iran’s ability to circumvent and evade sanctions, a skill it has honed over the 47 years since the revolution. Nor will we discuss the Caspian Sea, which serves as a back door for Iranian trade with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan — the countries that share its waters. Instead, let us consider Iran’s land borders: Iraq, the longest at 1,500 kilometers; Turkmenistan, at 990 kilometers; Pakistan, at roughly 950; Afghanistan, about 900; Azerbaijan, around 600; Turkey, approximately 500; and finally Armenia, with only about 44 kilometers of shared border. All of these countries maintain friendly relations and commercial ties with Iran, and U.S. sanctions will not be able to halt this cooperation.
This is especially true given that much of this cooperation consists of trade and shared interests among border tribes, clans and villages with transport fleets operating outside direct state control. The sad irony is that the Israeli-American aggression against Iran was not launched from any of these countries — and there is no need to spell out the rest.
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