Sanctions

Editor’s Note: U.S. influence in Iraq, uneven in the best of times, often suffers from a lack of leverage. As a result, the United States has found it harder to counter Iran’s influence, fight terrorism, improve governance or achieve other goals. Douglas Ollivant of New America finds a new bright spot in the U.S. effort. By using the Magnitsky Act, designed to counter corruption and human rights abuses, the United States is discrediting some of the country’s worst actors and thus indirectly empowering local U.S. allies.

Daniel Byman

The United States has long promised to ensure trade in humanitarian goods for countries under its economic sanctions. For this reason, each U.S. country-based sanctions program has carved out exceptions that secured food and medicine so as to limit potential catastrophic effects on civilian populations.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.

On Jan. 31, the governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom formally announced the establishment of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a Special Purpose Vehicle dedicated to facilitating trade between European economic actors and Iran. The creation of INSTEX by the three countries—known as the E3—followed months of negotiations in the wake of the United States’s 2018 exit from the Iran nuclear deal.