US must compensate for unlawful sanctions against Iran and Cuba
An American professor says that the United States should make up for the decades-old unlawful sanctions and embargo against Iran and Cuba.
Tuomo Melasuo, who’s a political science professor at Tampere
University, is a proponent of the idea of conditionality for the U.S. return to
the JCPOA can reinforce multilateralism around the world.
The following is the entire text of the interview conducted
an published by the Tehran Times:
“Q: The U.S. is
practicing more and more unilateral policies and at the same time it withdraws
from major international and multilateral treaties. This policy continues to
isolate that country. Don’t you think this would allow the rest of the world,
especially China and Russia together with Europe, to challenge the United
States’ leading role in many different fields?
A: It is true that
the USA is isolating herself more and more from world affairs. However, this is
a very ambivalent evolution. The general trend today goes in the opposite
direction, nobody can face the future alone anymore. We do not need another
North Korea, even if it is a former “superpower”. It is extremely difficult to
say if China, Russia, and Europe can have a common stand towards the USA, but
if they want to remain responsible countries, they must fulfill the
expectations the rest of the world is placing on them.
Q: Do you agree that
Iran should demand compensation for the losses the U.S. has caused through its
illegal sanctions?
A: This also is a difficult question that should be debated
on an international level. Illegal sanctions are causing suffering for many
nations and innocent people.
Of course, Iranian
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif can require that the USA compensate Iran’s losses.
Nevertheless, the goal of the international community should be larger and
should aim at the creation of a regime where all rogue states, be it a
superpower, would be prosecuted for unilateral and illegal sanctions.
This kind of conditionality for the USA’s return to the
JCPOA could be an occasion to strengthen this multilateral drive towards a more
just world.
Further on, besides the sanctions against Iran, the USA
should compensate also for the decades-old illegal sanctions and embargo
against Cuba.
Q: Do you think the
controversies between Iran and the U.S. would end with a war?
A: Of course, I hope
that these controversies will not lead to war. It would be the worst thing to
happen for both antagonists, but at the same time, it would be a catastrophe
for the whole Middle East (West Asia) and for the international community. This
requires that both antagonists do all they can in order to avoid the war.
Today’s international community and also individual countries have such complex
and multiform profiles that war is not a solution, on the contrary.
Q: Why does Israel
oppose creating a West Asia zone free of nuclear weapons?
A: Up to my
understanding there are mainly two explanations for your question.
Primo, that Israel
has never recognized that it owns nuclear arms. It might voluntarily maintain
secrecy on it also for leaving the world to believe that it could really use
those arms against its neighbors.
Second, if the
nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East (West Asia) would be created, on
one hand, it would reduce the strategic weight of the USA and its vassal in the
area. On the other hand, the NWFZME will reduce the tensions in the region and
make them more local. At the same time, the only nuclear arms country in the
area will lose its strategic position and become a banal local entity.
By the way, I am wondering why this crucial issue has not
been included in Mr. Trump’s efforts for peace, neither it seems to play no
role in the new initiative’s countries like the UAE and Bahrain have done
recently.”
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