The Guardian | Afua Hirsch: There is no justification for the US action. All sanctions will do is cause suffering for innocent people

More than a decade ago, when the dust had settled on their disastrous implementation in Saddam Hussein�s Iraq, sanctions began to be described as the new emergency response to international incidents. They had become a kind of knee-jerk reaction. Sanctions were�imposed by the international community during the war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s,�in�Haiti after a military coup ousted the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991, and the�US had long used a trade embargo against Cuba�s communist regime. Like emergency numbers, sanctions were in danger of being used too much.

America�s latest�sanctions, courtesy of Donald Trump, fall on Iran this week. Iranians are braced for a massive hit to manufacturing, commodities, energy and finance, with consequences for all aspects of ordinary life. The economy�is already tanking with the currency�falling.

 

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