The Long Road to Lifting Iran Sanctions

Washington’s sanctions regime, built over four decades, is far from a single switch that can be flipped. While the president holds authority to reverse executive orders—including asset freezes and oil embargoes—with a simple signature, congressional mandates present a significantly higher hurdle. These laws, which target human rights abuses and state-sponsored activities, contain no built-in waivers for improved conduct. Furthermore, the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization creates a permanent friction point, as the group remains deeply embedded within the Iranian economy.

Global institutions, including the United Nations and the European Union, maintain their own layers of pressure. The EU’s 2012 embargoes, which disconnected major Iranian banks from the SWIFT international payment system, continue to isolate the country’s financial sector. Even if political agreements were reached, foreign companies face an arduous compliance landscape. The risk of legal jeopardy, potential lawsuits from victims of groups supported by Tehran, and the sheer difficulty of vetting Iranian partners against long lists of designated entities keep international investors on the sidelines. Consequently, billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue remain trapped in foreign banks across South Korea, China, Japan, Luxembourg, and Iraq, inaccessible to the Iranian state.