May 29, 2018

Enforcing Sanctions On Iran

By: Elizabeth Rosenberg

Now that the U.S. has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, how difficult will it be to enforce sanctions? NPR's Scott Simon speaks with former Treasury Department adviser Elizabeth Rosenberg.

SIMON: Iran must know how to handle sanctions after all this time, don't they? They've had to live under a lot of them over the past generation.

ROSENBERG: They have indeed. They've been subject to very serious, tough sanctions in the past not just from the United States but from the entire international community. That's involved restrictions on their energy sector, their banking sector and an array of other economic sectors.

SIMON: How have they gotten around them?

ROSENBERG: Well, in some instances, they haven't been able to. So during the period of most intensive, multilateral sanctions on Iran - this is 2012 to 2015 - they had great difficulty evading sanctions. It happened here and there, certainly when it came to sales of oil, certain cargoes or bartering - financial bartering - some smuggling activities. But the fear now is that, in an instance where there's unilateral sanctions on Iran, it may have ample opportunity to cheat and evade these sanctions.

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