On October 8, the Trump administration imposed its latest round of sanctions on Iran: bank sanctions it touted in the run-up to the action as crippling and which proponents, including Senators Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), reportedly hope will cause the collapse of Iran’s economy. Setting aside the wisdom of trying to collapse an economy in the middle of a COVID-19 resurgence, the goal of blacklisting the rest of Iran’s financial sector has been a stalking horse for hardliners for some time.

The latest round of sanctions, somewhat predictably, are more window dressing than anything of strategic import, as Iran’s banking sector was already subject to a substantial level of sanctions. Instead, the sanctions may be more directed at creating difficult conditions for the resumption of the Iran nuclear deal under a potential Joe Biden administration. However, that is not to say that there will be no impact. Indeed, the Iranian rial fell even further against the US dollar in the aftermath of the sanctions—an event that harms ordinary Iranians as well as the government. Policy actions like these are a continuation of a foreign policy toward Iran that appears characterized by spite rather than achievable policy ends.

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Read the full post at the Atlantic Council.