AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Irdc: during the Iran - Iraq war, Western countries and some of their eastern allies tried to intensify the sanctions in order to break down the country's defense system. A failed plan.
This article reviews in the history of the 80's, to mark the most important sanctions of that time.
Arms embargo - Operation Staunch to stop the flow of US arms to Iran
As the imposed war began, the United States not only refused to sell arms to Iran, but also blocked the weapons from Pahlavi era and didn't give them to Iran. Morever, at the climax of Iraq's attacks, in 1983 they launched operation Staunch to stop the flow of US arms to Iran, aiming to prevent Iran's access to arms or equipment anywhere in the world.
At the same year, United States Department of State make efforts to stop other countries from selling weapons to Iran, while Iran needed them the most to confront Iraq.
It has to be mentioned that the named sanctions were against the provisions of the 1981 Algiers Accords, which banned any kind of US interference in Iran's domestic affairs, and ordered lifting the sanctions after the hostage crisis.
Spare Parts Sanction
In 1986, a law was legislated to limit some spate parts import besides other military and economic sanctions. Their excuse was that some spate parts can be used in military and defense industries.
Oil Import Sanction
This sanction was imposed in 1987. Washington Post wrote: "One of the spokesmen of United States Secretary of State had said that part of US endevours to end Iran - Iraq war, was to prevent the companies from buying oil and trading with Iran to decrease Iran's income". France and the United States boycotted buying Iran's oil, and Germany reduced it's import.
The United States also put Japan under pressure to do so, and thus Japan banned its industries from buying Iran's oil and then set some regulations to reduce it's import up to 30%. The United States also encouraged Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to produce oil much more than OPEC's limited share, in a way that the price of each barrel does't exeed 12_15 dollars, so that Iran has to sell its oil with lower price.
Chemical and Biologic Material and Equipment Sanction
The West claimed that Iran used some of chemical and industrial goods to produce weapons and military equipment. In April 1984 and July 1987, some sanctions were imposed to prevent the import of chemical materials with industrial, trade and economic use for Iran.
Marine and Aerial Equipment Sanction
Due to the sanction imposed by US in 23 October 1987, direct exporting and re exporting of Scuba Diving equipments and similar goods namely cell phone communication equipment, boats, Diesel HP400 engines, the spare parts of the non strategic planes, special under water systems, and... were banned. Any export from US to Iran needed a license that wasn't easy to get. Although, the spare parts and parts of some products was Ok to export, but only if less than 20% of that product was American.
Financial Resources Sanction
In 1988, when the war was near to its end, all the American members of international organizations were asked to reject and vote negatie to Iran's requests for loans or finances. This coincided with Iran's financial problems in the time of rebuilding the damages of the war and the necessity of economic growth. It affected the country's economy but could not make the Islamic Republic give up on its goals, ideals and economic policies and unite with the West.
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