Noose Tightens Around Iranian Oil

In a recent statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that “he sees no evidence of any impact of sanctions on Iran’s calculations about its controversial nuclear program.” However, Israel’s Ambassador to United Nations (UN) has told the reporters that the sanctions have a good shot at changing Iran’s behavior by stating “I think the international community at this stage has really moved forward and have made at least clear to Tehran that there is a certain price tag for continuing [their nuclear program]." These diverging statements might be attributable to different interpretations of the goals of the sanctions themselves or due to differences in the assessment criteria used to measure the sanctions’ success or failure. In short, the efficiency of sanctions may be interpreted differently by different parties. One thing that is not in question however is that sanctions are increasingly used as a policy tool for political intervention.