For countries that believe in free trade sanctions are not a good option. While it is targeted at one country it damages those who are imposing the sanctions as well. A good example of this is Iran. At the moment there are scanctions on Iran by the EU and US meaning that despite being a major producer of oil and gas Iran does not export much of it. For the EU in particular this has serious consequences. There are very few options for importing gas; Algeria and Lybia provide a little, some is domestic (from Britain, the Netherlands and Norway) and the rest comes from Russia or Central Asia through Russia. The only alternative is liquified natural gas from Qatar which is both very expensive as it needs to be cooled to be liquified and transported before being warmed up again for use at the other end, it can also be highly explosive and therefore dangerous.

This leaves dependence on Russia or Iran. Iran could help build and fill a pipeline to Southern Europe (Nabucco) that is already being constructed but because of sanctions it cannot take part despite being the obvious partner. This forces Europe to rely on Russia to meet our rising demand for gas supplies. Russia has already demonstrated that allowing them to have a monopoly on our gas supplies is dangerous by regularly cutting off supply to Eastern European and former soviet states. Russia has also succeded in cutting off the possibility of filling nabucco with gas from central asia by winning contracts to sell on the gas from Central Asian states.

The only way out of this would be to drop sanctions on Iran so that we can get our gas from there and prevent our dependence on Russia. This would benefit both of our economies rather than harming both as the sanctions are doing. Prices would come down due to competition so benefiting us while some revinues would go to Iran.

Recent research suggests that US implemented economic sanctions are costing the United States approximately $15 billion to $19 billion each year in potential exports, and costing approximately 200,000 jobs as well.

The U.S economy is going through enough problems as it is. Frivolous expenditure is hardly a solution to these.

Economic Sanctions don’t have any affect in small countries if they opt themselves out of the market; they strengthen the country by forcing them to be independent.

Therefore the country with sanctions imposed on it, benefits and has little incentive/reason to not do what The U.S is trying to starve it/her from doing.

pie is guud, cant be bought cuz of sanctions in iraq