At the American Enterprise Institute, Amir Toumaj writes on the Iranian government’s “Economy of Resistance” and the internal disagreement in Tehran over how to best implement it. Toumaj explains how relaxing economic sanctions would give President Hassan Rouhani the ability to protect the country against any future possible sanctions:
Rouhani’s efforts to “sanctions-proof” the Iranian economy raise the stakes for the West in the current nuclear negotiations. It has long been an article of faith among advocates of sanctions relief that the West could re-impose economic penalties on Iran should Iran fail to abide by the terms of a nuclear deal. We can no longer take that assumption on faith. Rouhani may succeed in using significant sanctions relief to harden Iran against future sanctions enough to make them unattractive to the West, particularly if he is also able to build meaningful economic linkages between Iran and the world. The West must therefore approach the prospect of a “final” nuclear deal that significantly reduces sanctions pressure on Iran as the beginning of the end of sanctions as an effective tool of policy toward Tehran. Such an agreement can transform future relations between the Islamic Republic and the West.
Read the whole thing here.
