(Donald Self – Al Arabiya) Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced it will impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran with the president warning of “economic D-Day.”
Iran is no stranger to sanctions, having faced successive rounds of punitive measures from the United States, European Union and United Nations for decades. It was the most sanctioned country in the World until Russia surpassed it in 2022. The first US sanctions were imposed in November 1979 following the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. Despite this, the Trump administration is arguing that it’s only a matter of time to get Tehran to its breaking point.
The US president also promised to impose harsh sanctions on any country or entity that might try to help Iran and help it circumvent US sanctions.
Trump has shown a preference for using economic pressure as a tool of statecraft, notably through the most expansive tariff regime since the 1930s which imposed duties on imports from more than 180 countries and territories.
The United States maintains dozens of sanctions programs targeting governments, sectors, companies, armed groups and individuals around the world. A 2024 Washington Post analysis said that 60 percent of low-income countries were subject to some form of US financial sanction, illustrating how extensive the system has become.
A Cato Institute study of contemporary sanctions regimes found that comprehensive sanctions usually fail to achieve their stated political goals, a conclusion widely shared among sanctions scholars even if the degree of failure is debated.
Such directives are not a new phenomenon however and have been a mainstay of US foreign policy. Washington has long used economic sanctions to exert pressure on foreign governments and constrain their access to trade, finance and strategic resources. Sanctions on Japan, Cuba and North Korea stand out among the most formative examples of the 20th Century.
Before Iran: The countries hit hardest by US economic sanctions
