U.N. Sanctions Help Iran

The U.N. essentially acquiesced to a nuclear Middle East, says Massoud Parsi at Al Jazeera, by approving sanctions against Iran that were watered down by Russia and China to the point of being meaningless. “Iran has lived with similar sanctions for more than three decades and with none of the country’s key economic sectors targeted by the new sanctions — and many provisions in the new resolution voluntary rather than mandatory — there is no reason to believe that Iran will face any serious hardship now…The UN, it appears, does not desire a nuclear-free Middle East. After the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles, such actions by the UN Security Council only serve to further delegitimise the UN and to undermine its charter.”