By Jan Oberg

Commenting on Iran’s global PressTV why the US sanctions against Iran are one big violation of international law and why other countries should resist all pressures from the US and its threat of imposing its secondary sanctions on them – remember Trump’s tweet that anyone who does business with Iran will not do business with the US.

This behaviour – including the attempt to suffocate 85 million innocent Iranian citizens – is an unacceptable type of policy as well as a gross violation of human rights.

Decency, ethics and simple fairness should compel the world to tell the US that on this one it stands alone. The burden here is very high on the Euopean Union.

In passing, let me say that I am happy to work with PressTV. I’m always being treated with respect and gratitude and over the years not one attempt to manipulate what I am saying. That is something I cannot say about Danish, Swedish and other Western media – including for instance The Nation – I’ve had the mixed joy to work with.

I also silently wonder what other Western intellectuals – and fellow peace researchers – think about these horrible, unfair sanctions. Is the – naive – assumption still that sanctions is a ‘soft’ tool?

Or, are intellectuals really that afraid of criticizing US foreign policy and its brutality and therefore stick to inner-Iran perspectives or see this only as an economic and not a power and conflict issue?

If so, the words “intellectual” and “academic” are misplaced.

  JCPOA, US isolation US threats to allies, US secondary sanctions