Daniel Larison write on the American Conservative that sanctioning Iran even on a limited scale would be harmful. He writes:
Even when limited to the imposition of sanctions, confronting Iran exacts a significant toll from the Iranian population, it makes it more difficult for the Iranian middle class to flourish, and creates opportunities for the government to consolidate its power. In practice, confronting the Iranian government entails harming the Iranian people and undermining the opposition’s political struggle against the regime. Gasoline sanctions have not achieved the desired results, and the Iranian government has been able to turn them to its advantage at the expense of middle-class Iranians, many of whom are supportive of the Iranian opposition’s demands. As The Wall Street Journalreported last month:
Much of the opposition to the president’s 2009 re-election came from Iran’s middle class and merchants, many of whom criticized the president’s populist economic policies and believed his religious views bordered on heretical. It is this segment of the population—which owns the factories and the cars—that is feeling the most pain from the subsidy cuts, argue these analysts, while Mr. Ahmadinejad’s power base, the poor, is in the position to gain.
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