Summary
The article discusses how Western sanctions on Iran, particularly since 2012, have significantly weakened the Iranian middle class. Using a research method that compares Iran's economic development to similar countries without sanctions, the study found the middle class shrank by a noticeable amount during the sanctions period.
Key Facts
- Sanctions are used by the West as an alternative to military action, aiming to weaken regimes without harming citizens.
- The Iranian middle class, which developed over a century, was crucial for economic and political modernization.
- New sanctions since 2012 heavily impacted Iran’s middle class, reducing its size significantly.
- The study used the 'synthetic control method', a statistical technique for comparing Iran with similar countries not facing sanctions.
- From 2012 to 2019, Iran’s middle class was 17 percent smaller on average than it could have been without sanctions.
- By 2019, the difference grew to 28 percent, worsened by the US "maximum pressure" campaign.
- The impact affected millions of middle-class Iranians like engineers, doctors, and small business owners.
- In 2005, before recent sanctions, about 79 percent of Iranians identified as middle class in a global survey.
