“Ironically, the punitive new measure may not have major economic impact—at least not to the degree that the Administration advertised. ‘It’s a lot of hype, but it doesn’t mean much economically. It’s unlikely to have a damaging effect’ on Iran beyond the sanctions that have already been imposed, Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury sanctions specialist who is now at the Center for a New American Security, told me. ‘It’s in the realm of the symbolic.’ The sanctions are ‘a sideshow to a threat of military escalation and all-out conflict,’ she said. They fuel a narrative focussed on Iran rather than the United States—and the fact that Trump blinked when he called off a retaliatory military strike last Thursday.”
Read the full article here: