Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran a crime against humanity

By Stephen Lendman

US war on Iran by other means is all about seeking control of the country, its vast hydrocarbon resources, and population.

It’s also about eliminating Israel’s main regional rival, furthering its hegemonic aims as Washington’s regional junior partner.

US sanctions, economic and medical terrorism on Iran are crimes of war and against humanity by any standard.

For over 40 years, Washington failed to transform Iran into a US client state, despite using virtually every dirty trick imaginable trying.

The Trump regime’s war on the country by other means failed. Yet it rages endlessly, no end of it in prospect.

Instead of easing sanctions on Iran to enable imports of medicines, medical equipment and related supplies, the Trump regime piled on more.

Maximum pressure is a Trump regime euphemism for unlawful political, economic and financial collective punishment against a sovereign state for not bending to Washington’s will.

Binding international law Fourth Geneva’s Article 33 prohibits it, stating:

“No (one) may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.”

“Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”

“Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against (individuals) and their property are prohibited.”

Leader: Iran to turn ‘maximum pressure’ into US ‘maximum disgrace’

Iran’s Leader says the Islamic Republic will continue to resist until facing the US with as much disgrace as is possible.

Fourth Geneva and other international laws to which the US is a signatory are automatically its constitutional law.

The US under Republicans and undemocratic Dems operate by their own rules exclusively, time and again breaching the UN Charter and other binding international laws, norms and standards — by waging war on humanity at home and abroad.

Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries are in the eye of the Trump regime’s “maximum pressure” storm, the world community collectively and UN doing nothing to challenge its lawless actions.

Unacceptable US actions are counterproductive long-term.

Along with transforming the US into a pariah state, they’re symptomatic of a nation in decline.

China, Russia, Iran, and other nations are rising, the US declining politically and economically.

Discretionary spending on US militarism, war-making, corporate welfare, and police state harshness come at the expense of eroding public services.

The disparity between rich and most others in America is widening, poverty the leading growth industry in the world’s richest country.

It’s permanently at war on humanity at home and abroad – Russia, China, Iran, and other sovereign independent nations considered enemies of the state for not being submissive to its will.

The myth of American exceptionalism, the indispensable state, an illusory moral superiority, and military supremacy persist despite hard evidence debunking these notions.

The US was at the height of its power post-WW II, maintained for some years in the post-war era, decline beginning and continuing in recent decades, notably post-9/11.

It’s the same dynamic dooming all other empires in history – a nation in decline because of its imperial arrogance, hubris, waging endless wars against invented enemies, and its unwillingness to change.

US targets Iran's financial sector, imposes sanctions on 18 banks

The United States has targeted Iran’s financial sector by imposing sanctions on 18 Iranian banks, in defiance of Europe’s humanitarian objections.

*Stephen Lendman, born in 1934 in Boston, started writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or archived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.

He wrote this article for Press TV website.

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