Thread by @seyyedreza

It's a scary time in Iran. US sanctions have caused prices to double or triple. There are shortages of food and medicine.

They talk about the possibility of war, but the reality for Iranians is that Trump's sanctions are war- and they're killing Iranians.#NoWarWithIran

THREAD:

At my grocery store, basic subsidized staples like cheese and rice are rationed one per person.

People line up for hours to buy government-subsidized meat, since the price of "free market" meat has doubled.

A friend arrived at my house distraught the other day. On her way over, she saw an old man having a seizure. When she tried to help him, he told her that epilepsy medicine had doubled in price.

He couldn't afford to not have seizures anymore.

Even though Iran has socialized healthcare, the government can no longer guarantee access to many medicines because sanctions have cut off the supply - and medicine that comes in is shockingly expensive.

Iran's currency has lost 80% of its value since US sanctions were imposed last year - meaning tens of millions of Iranians have seen their life savings go up in smoke.

Why? All of this because Trump tore up the Nuclear Deal - which all international observers agreed Iran was abiding by - and imposed sanctions intended to punish and starve Iran into submission.

Trump is trying to bully Iran to death.

We talk about the fear of war - but in Iran, people are already living and breathing the effects of American warfare.

Sanctions are like a medieval siege - they choke people to death, cut off the lifelines, cut off the escape routes - and then leaders say, "We're just targeting military targets."

But this is laughable and stupid. When have US sanctions ever worked?

They didn't work in Cuba, they didn't work in Iraq, they didn't work in North Korea, they didn't work in Venezuela.

In all of these countries they just compounded human misery.

And they give ordinary people a reason to hate America.

2 years ago, Iranians voted for a president who promised to talk to the world, to preserve international norms of peace and openness, who promised to make Iran abide by its international commitments.

Iran's president fulfilled his promises. But in return, Americans elected a murderous, blustering idiot who considers killing Iranians a kind of sport.

And today, it is 80 million Iranians living with the consequences.

Whether or not "war" comes, the sad fact is that the US declared war on Iran a long time ago.

Sanctions are a form of "silent warfare" - silent only because the cries of Iranians go unheard in the US.

Starving a country into submission is war. Make no mistake about it.