US Senator Scorns Western Sanctions, Failed to Destroy Russia, China and Iran

JAKARTA – United States (US) policy continues to tighten economic sanctions against Russia, China and Iran failed to produce results to lead these countries to change their political direction. This scorn was expressed directly by US Senator Rand Paul in Washington. He bluntly posed the following question to State Department officials:

“Can you tell me one behavior that has changed because of sanctions? You can tell me one sanction that you imposed on Russia,” he said as reported by TASS, Sunday (26/5/2024).

“We are sorry, we should have never done that. And we will do what you want, just tell us what we have to do and we will do it. Or just tell me what behavior has been modified by China, Russia and Iran. In fact, if you look at Iran, the opposite is true.”

“I would argue that sanctions don’t work at all. The only sanctions that work is if you offer to lift them. But what we tend to do is we add to them, and add to them, and add to them again,” he continued.

“To my knowledge, I don’t know of anything being removed. In the Iran deal, there were some sanctions that were going to be removed and have been removed, but with Russia and China we’ve been doing this for five years, some of them for 10 years with those two countries. “I don’t know of anything we’ve removed,” Paul added.

“But the problem is, there is another alternative and this is called diplomacy,” he said, adding that Washington should prefer to take a diplomatic approach with these countries rather than impose more sanctions.

He also criticized the US government’s plans to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war.

“We claim that we will take it. We may have the capability. We have tremendous control over the banking system. But, at the same time, if we take it, do you think Russia will just collapse?” the senator asked rhetorically.

He said that such actions would prompt Moscow to take retaliatory measures. “So, we will take their sovereign wealth, and they will take all the private wealth that is there. I don’t think this will lead us to a solution,” explained Paul. “But once you do it, it’s almost impossible to go back.”

(nng)