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Information Minister in Pakistani-administered Kashmir: Five civilians killed and at least 29 others injured in shelling across the border with India
Israeli Army Radio's diplomatic correspondent quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: So he [Trump] decided to cut off contact. That might still change, but that’s the situation right now
Israeli Army Radio's diplomatic correspondent quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: Trump’s circle told him [Dermer] that Netanyahu was manipulating him, and there’s nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as someone being played
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: Meetings between the Israelis, Egyptians, and Qataris are all centered around the Israeli proposal, which does not guarantee an end to the war [on Gaza]
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: “Israel” is threatening to expand the ground offensive if Hamas rejects the proposal
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: Hamas rejects the Israeli proposal, viewing it as failing to guarantee an end to the war
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: “Israel” is sticking to its proposal, and insists there is no alternative offer on the table for negotiation
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The meetings between the Israelis and the Egyptians and Qataris all revolve around the Israeli proposal
The administration was clearly looking for an off-ramp for this campaign against Ansar Allah, NBC News reports, citing US official
Trump's operation against Ansar Allah cost more than $1 billion, NBC News reports, citing US official

US sanctions are a vice wrapped around its own throat

  • Samuel Geddes Samuel Geddes
  • Source: Al Mayadeen Net
  • 17 Mar 2022 01:13
  • 4 Shares
5 Min Read

Washington’s weaponization of its economic dominance against enemy states is gradually reducing its own room for maneuver.

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  • US sanctions are a vice wrapped around its own throat
    US sanctions are a vice wrapped around its own throat

President Biden’s announcement that he was cutting off all US imports of Russian oil signaled that the last three weeks of western sanctions on Moscow were but the opening salvo of a totalizing economic war. The move, which will fuel inflation at home, makes more likely a general European embargo of all Russian energy imports, including natural gas as well as coal. This of course assumes that President Putin doesn’t return fire by turning off the spigot to Europe first.  

Russia is by no means the first country to be subjected to economic siege as a substitute for direct war, but it is so far the largest and most systemically significant to the global economy. Indicative of its importance, its expulsion from the financial system is already rippling out into crises thus far unrelated to Europe’s latest war.  

In Vienna, the negotiations on the United States’ return to the Iran nuclear deal may now have been scuttled at the last minute, with Russia demanding that the newly imposed sanctions should have no impact on Moscow’s budding economic relationship with Iran. With both countries now exiled from the global economy, Iran and Russia will play a mutually reinforcing role for each other in evading the west’s sanctions and in substituting now banned technological imports. 

While Tehran would no doubt wish to see the JCPOA reinstated and Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions removed, its oil exports to China have already surpassed levels from before the US withdrawal. Even if Iranian oil and gas were allowed to return to the open market, there is little reason to assume Tehran is of a mind to ease the Europeans’ economic pain. Rather than helping to fill the gap left by Russia, Iran could simply accelerate sales to Beijing, further incentivizing it to economically decouple from North America and Europe. 

Closer to home, Biden’s economic war on Russia is already forcing a walk-back of the attempted strangulation of another official enemy, Venezuela. It was in fact Washington’s escalating attempts to throttle the energy sector of Venezuela that led to it turning to Russian oil imports in the first place. In 2021 Russia served as the second-largest source of oil-based imports to the United States, with its grade being like that of Venezuela, making it particularly suited to the needs of American refineries. 

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The South American oil producer under President Maduro has turned to both Moscow and Tehran for assistance in the face of sanctions that have cut off one of its only earners of foreign currency. Since 2019, not only has the West not had direct relations with Venezuela, but it has also recognized opposition figure Juan Guaido as the legitimate president, going as far as to allow him to sue for custody of Caracas’ sovereign gold reserves. 

President Maduro has acknowledged that American officials have approached him to discuss “energy security” in recent days. Given Russia’s support in the past and American negotiators conditioning a review of their sanctions policy on talks with the Venezuelan opposition, it seems unlikely that Caracas is in any mood to salve Washington’s largely self-inflicted difficulties without sweeping concessions in return. 

None other than former Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out in 2015 while promoting the Iran nuclear deal, that imposing its foreign policy on the world through sanctions will ultimately see the US lose its position as guarantor of the world-reserve currency. It now seems that the truth of that prediction is starting to be felt not just in Europe but the United States itself. 

The longer the list grows of economically untouchable countries, the more limited will be US options for stemming the blowback from its weaponization of global finance. This reality is starting to bite while Washington’s hitlist is still short. 

Ultimately the Biden administration will find a work-around for this crisis. Iraq is now likely the country with the largest room for growth in its energy sector, while gas producers in the Caspian basin, the Mediterranean, and West Africa will bring more production online to meet increasingly desperate European demand. But what will it do if in the future it adds Nigeria, Algeria, Iraq, or even China to the economic blacklist? With time, the threat of sanctions will become more of an incentive to cut economic ties to the dollar rather than to maintain them.  

For now, the true costs of American economic warfare are to be borne by its allies. Without a wholesale reconsideration of its sanctions policy, Washington may find itself in the not-too-distant future, ruling a hermit kingdom of its own. 

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
  • United States
  • Ukraine crisis
  • US sanctions on Russia
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Samuel Geddes

Samuel Geddes

Journalist

Russia & NATO

Russia & NATO

As the Draconian Western-led sanctions on Russia exacerbate the economic crisis worldwide, and as Russian troops gain more ground despite the influx of military aid into Ukraine, exposing US direct involvement in bio-labs spread across Eastern Europe and the insurgence of neo-Nazi groups… How will things unfold?

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