“On July 1st, European Union states intend to shut their doors to Iranian oil. The Islamic Republic will then have to contend with a decline of at least $20 billion in its annual income. Iran will survive – beaten, battered and suffocating, like a patient who lost yet another vital oxygen pipe. With emphasis on “another.”

The sanctions imposed by the EU on Iran Monday are not there in and of themselves: They are the continuation and highlight of a long and increasingly intensifying path of sanctions. The economic sanction regime – first American and later international in nature – has been imposed on Iran since 1979 and in its current format since May of 1995.

Until 2008, the sanctions achieved little; they were no more than a nuisance. However, since then, and especially ever since Security Council Resolution 1929 from June of 2010, the picture has been changing rapidly. The sanctions are biting into the flesh of Iran’s economy and weakening it every day; their cumulative effect is crushing.”

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