The US Senate has adopted the “Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017” bill and left the Iranian regime trembling with fear. Media outlets in the country have described the bill as the “black hole” of sanctions.

The bill is so comprehensive that it does not leave the Iranian regime with a lot of choice but to comply.

Part of the bill deals specifically with sanctions on the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). It is based on an executive order and stipulates that individuals or entities will be put on the US sanctions list if they provide services to or cooperate with the IRGC.

Aside from the military aspects of the bill which are troubling to the Iranian regime, the economic impact is equally as worrying.

The IRGC has a large control over the country’s economy and the new sanctions could possibly have a paralysing effect. The regime is aware that the new measures are much more far-reaching compared to the sanctions that were in place before the 2015 nuclear deal was agreed.

Although the bill does not officially designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation, many say that the outcome will be the same. It is also likely that these sanctions are actually the first step in moving towards the designation.

The Iranian regime’s western lobbies are claiming that these sanctions are a violation of the nuclear deal and will make Iran pull out of the nuclear deal. They are strongly advising that no action should be taken by the US. However, no heed should be taken from these threats because the sanctions are not related to the nuclear deal – they are to do with human rights violations, ballistic missile development and support of terrorism.

In any case, if Iranian regime was to pull out of the nuclear deal, the biggest loser would be Iran itself. Iran would go back to the sanctions that were in place before they were lifted as a result of the deal, and Article 7 of the UN Charter would apply again meaning that international military action would be legitimate. Thus analysts have described any such move as “political suicide”, estimating that this is a highly unlikely scenario.

What makes it even more unlikely is that the situation in the country is reaching a critical point. The domestic crises are making popular dissent reach new levels and the Iranian regime is trying its hardest to prevent another uprising.

Source » ncr-iran