A international conference entitled “ Iranian nuclear power: realities and prospects for sanctions” was organised in Paris on November 21st 2023 from 6h30 till 8 p.m at the Paris School of Business with the presence of high level experts ,journalists, researchers and students .
The debate was introduced by Professor Frédéric Encel who started by mentioning that We approach a very controversial issue today given the international situation regarding iran because we rarely speak about Iran and its economic policy both internal and external through the sanctions. I would like to remind you that January 1st 2007, the Islamic Republic of Iran was sanctioned internationally and I would like to focus on this level because all the members of the UN Security Council validated these sanctions not only Washington, Paris London but also Moscow and Pekin and then they continued to maintain these sanctions even though some countries like China help through economic aid and oil contracts.
He added that president Ahmadi Nijad at that time just handed a document which was not accepted by the UN council and after this deadline rejected by Iran, the international community took a series of sanctions against The Islamic Republic of Iran. The support of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Bachar Alassad’s regime needs a lot of economic and technological abilities.
Hamdam Mostafavi, Editor in Chief at the Express France highlighted that It has been more than 20 years since she has been working on the Iranian regime and the economic sanctions.
Are the sanctions responsible for the terror attacks of the regime and working in the black market? Did they push them to be close to China and Russia and support terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas? Do they stop the regime from the repression of its own population? We think that the sanctions are counter-productive and we know that they affect heavily the Iranian population. Iran stopped its nuclear program and the economic sanctions were lifted to allow the country to have economic relief.
Another important element in the development of the nuclear power by the Iranian regime is the scientific research made by scientists.
It is sufficient to prevent Iran from supporting military groups in the Middle East like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. The sanctions have a few effects on the economy of the Iranian regime which created another system to finance its militia and support it as well as arm its military groups.
Heloise Hayet, a researcher at IFRI, mentioned that Iran uses proxies to make war on the neighboring countries. The nuclear program in iran was stopped by a UN resolution 2231. This resolution obliges Iran not to develop ballistic missiles for the sake of creating a nuclear weapon. More importantly, this resolution ends the 18th of October 2023 but nobody speaks about it because we were focusing on another conflict in the Middle East in which iran was implicated too. France, UK and Europe decided to maintain this agreement regarding the development of ballistic missiles. However, Russian and Chinese sanctions are over which means that Iran could send ballistic missiles to Russia and vice versa which was the case in the war on Ukraine.
Emmanuel razavi, a reporter at Paris Match magazine, expert in Iran started his speech by focusing on the fact that Iran is a state which sponsors terrorism. Iran finances its proxies mainly Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. There is a definition of a terrorist organization and this fits into the context of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis which take hostages and do targeted terrorist attacks. Razavi made reports for Paris Match on the Houthis in Yemen and the Iranian revolution. Iran has institutionalized a parallel economy. The sanctions have a few effects on the economy of the Iranian regime which created another system to finance its militia and support as well as arm its military groups. Some arms are given by the Iranian regime to the Houthis in Yemen but some arms are given to Isis according to intelligence services mainly French and American. This business is not only serving Iran’s proxies but also other terrorist groups such as Isis and other organizations which are not necessarily Shia but also Sunni such as Hamas.
Khater Abou Diab,Dr in international relations, evoked the difficult situation in the Middle East due to Iran implication in instability in the region. It is a difficult moment to speak about the situation in the Middle East but Iran is implicated and it is even the one which profits from this chaos. They always try to negotiate the sanctions.what is important is how the West manages the sanctions on Iran.Why is Iran so strong despite all the sanctions? The strength of the Iranian regime comes from its islamist ideology and its proxies, its militia including the Houthi, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Bachar Alassad’s regime, both Shia and Sunni groups with an extension to Africa. In France, there was a presidential candidate in the North of France which supports Hamas and financed by Iran .Iran is everywhere and that is why speaking about sanctions touches upon the human rights, the nuclear program and financing terrorism.
Iris Faronkhondeh, Doctor in Indian and Iranian studies in Paris 3 University, highlighted the influence of Iran in using hostages policy and persecuting opposition leaders is complicated. How can we deal with such a regime. we cannot have a deal with a criminal state unless there is a regime change. The Iranian population suffers from poverty and marginalization. However, the regime has a lot of financial means that it uses to finance its militia and create instability in the region and create nuclear weapons. The tunnels of the Hamas are also constructed thanks to the Iranian regime help and there are links in terms of the techniques used by the regime and those used by Hamas.
The debate ended with a series of questions by the students who were intrested in getting answers from the experts regarding stability security and nuclear program in iran as well as its impact on the region and on the EU in particular regarding the fight against terrorism and the rise of extremism.
