New Report Assesses the Benefits and Costs of Sanctions Against Iran
December 14, 2012, Washington, D.C. – A recently released report, entitled “Weighing Benefits and Costs of International Sanctions Against Iran,” aims to provide an objective and nonpartisan analysis of the issue of sanctions against Iran. The report was published by the Iran Project and signed by 38 former members of Congress, senior diplomats, and military officers, as well as business leaders and foreign policy experts, including three PAAIA Board members and a public policy advisor.
The paper does not advocate for or against sanctions, nor does it make any policy recommendations. Its aim is to provide a fact based assessment of the costs and benefits of sanctions to enhance the quality of debate on this important policy matter. It provides some general reflections, which the authors and signers believe might help the United States and its allies get maximum advantage from the sanctions while minimizing potential negative effects.
“This report is different in the sense it takes an ongoing regime in place and seeks to find a way to inform those who have ideas about it but are not expert and give them a deep sense of both the complexities of the advantages and the disadvantages…,” explained former ambassador Thomas Pickering at a panel presentation introducing the report at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We have found that this new style report in Washington, with the addition of distinguished signers, is a much more seriously looked-at affair than many of the advocacy pieces that, in a sense, clutter the scene.”
The Iran Project seeks to improve official contacts between the American and Iranian governments. It was started in 2002 by the United Nations Association of the USA and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and became an independent project under the auspices of the nonprofit organization “Foundation for a Civil Society” in 2009.
Click here to find a full copy of the report.
Click here to listen to the podcast of the panel presentation at the Carnegie Endowment on Weighing Benefits and Costs of International Sanctions on Iran.
PAAIA is focused on domestic affairs as they relate to the Iranian American community and has not been a platform for promoting U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis Iran. However, we recognize the importance of Iranian Americans being informed about legislative initiatives and the positions of policy makers when it comes to U.S.-Iran relations. Any involvement PAAIA may have with respect to the issue of U.S. – Iran sanctions is focused on possibly managing the impact sanctions regulations may have on the Iranian American community. As such, PAAIA has been in contact with the Obama administration and members of Congress urging them to adopt policies that would help facilitate legitimate humanitarian aid to Iran or identifying and seeking modifications on regulations that may unreasonably restrict legitimate personal remittance activities for Iranian Americans.
