Thread by @yarbatman

1. I wanted to collect some of the years of reporting and writing that highlights why sanctions on #Iran are a sledgehammer, not a scalpel. The only certain outcome of sanctions is pain and suffering for ordinary people. Everything else is a gamble at best. Photo: @Newshaphoto

2. @jrezaian:"The next time an 'Iran expert' tells you that he supports the most crushing sanctions on the regime because they are the best way to support the Iranian people, be sure to ask him the last time he lived through something like this."
washingtonpost.com/news/global-op…

3. @pedestrian: "An economist I know from the University of Tehran put it this way: 'Sanctioning a country like this is similar to permanently disabling a human being. You might stop inflicting harm, but the damage is there forever.'"
vox.com/2015/8/12/9126…

3. @FaribaPajooh: "I sat on the stairs outside the pharmacy, empty handed save for my water bottle, which had grown hot from the sun. I was afraid to try the black market because there was no guarantee that what I found would even be real or safe."
lobelog.com/new-us-sanctio…

4. @Najmeh_Tehran: "Milad, an 8-year-old Iranian boy suffering from severe hemophilia, lives in Kuhdasht, a town 400 miles southwest of Tehran, and relies on injections of a U.S.-made treatment, Feiba, which is no longer available locally."
washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e…

5. @SaeedKD: "Sanctions also appear to be affecting humanitarian operations... Even companies that have obtained the requisite licence to import food and medicine are facing difficulties in finding third-country banks to process the transactions."
theguardian.com/world/2012/oct…

6. @Maxigy: "A few days ago an elderly woman came to my shop to buy 12 eggs, but when I told her how much she had to pay, she decided to just take five. I really felt bad because she is old and lives by herself."
reuters.com/article/us-ira…

7. @PostsForPeace: "“Future? What future? Does he really care about us? I cannot believe that. My heart sank the very night I heard Mr. Trump’s speech. I knew nothing good would come of it.”
al-monitor.com/pulse/original…

8. @peterson__scott: “We have always expected the Americans to come to our rescue, but that has happened only in words... [Trump] does not even let us visit his country. Do you think we could expect such a fool to save us from a bunch of other fools?”
csmonitor.com/World/Middle-E…

9. @EricWRandolph: "Young people have lost all hope in their future... I've been looking for work for three months to pay for my studies and help my father. I'm a law student but I know that once my studies are finished I won't find work."
bourseandbazaar.com/news-1/2018/7/…

10. @PHREUTERS: "'My worry is that the economy will go back to the sanctions era when we had difficulties to find essential food and even medicine. I want my son to have a good life.'"
reuters.com/article/us-ira…

11. @ThomasErdbrink: "'Our planes are completely worn out,' Captain Shahbazi said, emphasizing that mechanics were doing what they could to keep the planes flying safely. That was getting harder and harder. 'In reality, each flight can be our last.'"
nytimes.com/2012/07/14/wor…

11. @NPRinskeep: "'They say that we go around the sanctions, but it is making life difficult... I see the goods coming into this country and how difficult, how almost impossible it is for certain traders and merchants to transfer money for imported goods'"
npr.org/sections/paral…

12. Joy Gordon: "The result is that Iranians who want to pay their children’s college tuition abroad, or Iranian-Americans who want to send money to elderly relatives, have to carry suitcases with tens of thousands of dollars across borders."
foreignpolicy.com/2013/10/18/the…

13. @PeterBeinart: "The academic literature is clear: Far from promoting liberal democracy, sanctions tend to make the countries subject to them more authoritarian and repressive."
theatlantic.com/international/…

14. There are of course many more accounts, old and new. We know the discontent and anger of the Iranian people with their government run deep. Why does this suffering need to be made worse? Are sanctions really defensible? It has been a decade and we are no closer to the answers