Monday, August 20, 2012

Why US sanctions are useless

With China around, US sanctions against Iran, N.Korea and Sudan are useless; US has to get China on its side to force a solution

There are some uncanny commonalities between Kim Jong-il, Ahmadinejad and Omar al- Bashir! All three heads of states have been in the international spotlight for the wrong reasons; and all three care two hoots about US sanctions because of their magnanimous trade associations with China, a country that deals with any country it wishes to, despite any sanctions against those countries. China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, Iran is the second largest supplier of oil to China, and China is N.Korea’s largest investor and trading partner. Unless US gets China on its side, none of these countries will care to sit down on the discussion desk.

In a secret visit to China in May 2010, Kim apparently came with a begging bowl for finance, food and fuel – and in return vowed to reignite dormant international nuclear disarmament talks, which were hosted by Beijing and shunned by Pyongyang for over a year. In February 2010, US and Canada achieved a valuable ceasefire between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels. The bitter and bloody conflict, which claimed 3,00,000 lives and compelled 2.7 million people to become refugees in the last 7 years, has hopefully finally ended under US pressure and Chinese goading. If the US wants the slippery Omar al-Bashir – Sudanese President indicted by International Court of Justice for war crimes – to stick to his agreement, they have to use China to enforce the same. And if US wishes Iran too to start cooperating, China’s the answer.

Not that this absolves China of its past – China has regularly supplied arms to Bashir and to Iran; and has even played a major role in North Korea and Pakistan’s nuclear bomb development. But then, those horses have already bolted.


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