The Hewitt Times

After years of animosity and disagreement, Iran and The P5+ 1, (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: The United States, France, The United Kingdom, Russia, and China + Germany) signed a historic agreement in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 22^nd in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

I visited Iran last summer and experienced the effect of international sanctions first hand.

Many people I met were unemployed, and many explained that they could not afford basic necessities of life. For example, when I visited a school for abused women in Tehran run by the Omid Foundation, many of the girls were Afghani and explained to me that numerous Afghans are being deported due to lack of government funds to support them in Iran. I also met a woman named Mrs. Ahmadi, who takes care of her blind son; she told me that she could not even afford to buy meat, so they were forced to have grapes for dinner.

Much of Iran’s economic difficulties are due to international sanctions that have been placed on the country during the past decades by the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, and members of the European Union to curb Iran’s nuclear activity. Iran has been enriching uranium, it claims, for peaceful purposes only, such as electricity generation and medical use. However, the international community is suspicious that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Over the past few decades, the sanctions placed on Iran have not deterred them from pursuing the development of nuclear technologies. Iran has actually increased it’s number of centrifuges during the past ten years and has now developed a second generation centrifuge that is much more efficient than their older versions. Additionally, a nuclear site called Fordow was built inside of a mountain which is almost impossible to bomb.  As a result of the ineffectiveness of the sanctions, Western powers, namely the United States, have threatened Iran with military action.

Many believe that this agreement is the only hope to avoid war and the death of thousands of Americans and Iranians. Iran has agreed not to increase its number of centrifuges, allow more intrusive inspections, dilute some of its higher enriched uranium, and stop construction of the Arak heavy water reactor. In exchange, some of the sanctions will be removed, allowing Iran to sell petrochemicals, have access to their frozen bank accounts, and remove sanctions on their auto industry.