In time of Corona, sanctions against Iran are making the situation worse. Medical staff in Iran are denied of masks and other protectives. Iran is under U.S sanctions, so all the countries, companies, or people doing any bank transaction with Iran are imposed to harsh punishments or sanctions. More than 2000 medical staffs in Iran have tested positive for corona virus and about 200 among them are dead already. One nurse in emergency sector in Iran said “most of the nurses here stay in work without masks or gloves. They just work until they die.”
In Iran, a completely non-efficient government is in the office which always blames enemies and sanctions for all the problems, most of which are happening due to mismanagement and selfishness of the politicians. But it is not the government for sure which is being damaged by the sanctions. U.S always claims for the sanctions to be for the good of Iranian people. But it has only been good for government.
How sanctions work?
Today, any transaction with Iranian banks will be imposed on harsh punishment. Thus, less goods or commodities come to Iran except for the ones bought in black market, with cash and most of the time by smugglers. You might think there is no Apple phone in Iran. Well, there is. But there is nothing known as customer care or after sell services. It makes it difficult to use many products.
In the system of unequal distribution of resources in the world, mostly affected people by corona virus are minorities. One of the most vulnerable group of minorities in Iran are those Afghanistani migrants who are considered to be “illegal” by government. Many of these people are even deprived of identity papers to even send their children to school.
A photographer named Javad Khalili recently published this photo of an Afghan migrant child.
In caption he wrote: “this kid uses a 10,000 Toman note as a mask. Today in Iran it is impossible to buy a proper mask with this note. So, medication for pandemic are very difficult to avail. This situation is much harder for Afghan refugees, as they do not have any medical insurance.
At the same time government of Iran with the cooperation of Government and embassy of Afghanistan, arranged a show on national TV of Iran to mask the brutality of the reality. In a sequence of news all over media and social media, a poet from Afghanistan studying in the university of Yazd in Iran appeared to be attended to a hospital as a corona virus positive patient. Embassy of Afghanistan frequently came to the news for being concerned about the situation of “Master” and after that in a program on national TV of Iran, the president of Iran went to the hospital to show his respect and concerns about the situation of migrants in Iran.
Everyday a lot of content in social media comes out about the elite people who managed to fight the virus. What is lost in between, is the life of thousands of people who can’t afford to fight the virus. Who even can’t afford to get to a hospital for check up: The people who are not being considered as people. The brutality of the broken system of capitalism is making itself clear in this sentence, heard frequently in media in Iran: “don’t worry, this virus only kills old and weak people”.
At the same time the help of countries such as South Korea and Czech Republic to Iran has stopped in the borders of many countries along with the US political pressure due to sanctions.
How Iranian government survives the sanctions?
Six years ago, when the administration changed after a presidential election in Iran, a man named Babak Zanjani, was arrested and imprisoned being accused of corruption. He was the managing director of the UAE-based Sorinet Group, one of Iran’s largest business conglomerates. In late 2013, he was arrested and accused of withholding $2.7 billion of government money owned by the Ministry of Petroleum, in his attempts to facilitate Iran’s oil revenue hindered by the sanctions against Iran. He was convicted of corruption, sentenced to death and is currently awaiting execution.
At the same time negotiation between Iran and 5 European countries+ U.S was going on. Several commentators have stated that Zanjani is perhaps a “fall guy” for corruption scandals in Iran. Some others say he was the sacrifice for Iran-U.S deal which happened in 2015 after two years of negotiations between the seven above mentioned countries. What Zanjani did in a simple sentence after all, is that he helped the government to export petroleum and import commodities during the sanctions. He said in the court that he did all of it with cash. He also said if the government set me free with some bail I will free the money that the Ministry of Petroleum claims. But he was never allowed out of prison.
Babak Zanjani given a prize as the top entrepreneur by the previous government
He started his job as a negotiator and dealer at 19, when he was in military service, and at that time he was from a lower middle class family. Some people say he has an ordinary apartment in the middle of the city with an ordinary car living with his mother and the government used him, and when they didn’t need him anymore they threw him away in the abyss.
One year after the deal between Iran and six countries, president Obama left the office for president Trump to come. Trump tore apart the deal in his first year in the office and sanctions came back harsher than what they were in the first place. Iran’s government was fooled again.
In our history books in the school every year we would read about how previous kings of Iran were fooled by western countries and all the wealth of the country were stolen in disgraceful contracts with the Britain or Russia. The history was repeating itself, as a comedy again!
In July 2019, an Iranian Petroleum tanker was seized by Britain in International water near Giblartar, a British colony located in south of Spain and north of Iberian Peninsula. Britain accused this tanker of breaking their sanctions against Syria and exporting petroleum to them. But while Iran can send petroleum to Syria by land, as they also have military in Syria, why should they travel the whole Persian Gulf to Arabian sea and a complete round around Africa Continent to pass Giblartar and pass the whole Mediterranean sea to reach Syria? This question was never asked.
Some days later, Iran seized a British tanker near Iranian territory in Persian Gulf. After two or three weeks of raising tensions, which was only felt in the mainstream media and simultaneously peed its way to social media and created illusionary shit in our minds, unfortunately the two countries released both ships, ending the hysteria.
Workers in south of Iran to Persian Gulf from Iran’s Oil Industry saw these two ships taken as hostage by Iran and Britain. In their words, it was simply an export of petroleum from Iran to Britain by two ships, masked by a body of lies spreading by media, and fear of a new war in West Asia. A perfect cooperation between enemies.
Who is now the main smuggler? How are they making their profit out of the pandemic affecting the whole world? We have to wait for less than two more year, until the administration changes, and the new administration comes, which will hang the old smuggler to bring the new smugglers to power.
But the main benefit of all these for government in Iran is the illusion of enemy. An enemy who is threatening your life, health, safety and security. Who directs every moment in your life, and makes you want to unite with the government, and cooperate in oppression of any voice demanding justice and accountability. All for the sake of peace which can never come like this.
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