An American Observing Sanctions in Iran

just left iran
a couple days ago a very interesting
trip
usually my content is about uplifting
human stories and i will make a great
video on iran
but i’m compelled to tell the story of
what’s going on right now on the ground
with sanctions and so i have an
interesting perspective on the country
because
i’m an american guy but i travel there
as an italian i have two passports
and so americans have to go on a
government-minded tour
uh with with an official and they can’t
go off on their own
i have the privilege because of my
italian passport to be able to travel
wherever
so here’s what i saw i was there three
years ago
and the feeling especially in tehran
is very different so these sanctions
are really pinching the place and you
hear john bolton talk about everything
we can to squeeze iran hard as the
british say
to make to squeeze them until the pips
squeak
and we’re going to do everything we can
there they want to bring oil revenue to
zero
oil revenue makes up 80 percent of the
tax base in iran
on the real the currencies declined by
70
since the sanctions inflation has
quadrupled the country is in recession
you’re seeing right and all these
so-called you know accomplishments of
how you’re crippling a country and that
all sounds great geopolitically like
i’m gonna lose i’m gonna lose my pawn
uh to gain a knight but the reality
is on the ground in iran
especially in tehran people are feeling
it they’re feeling
it with their jobs with being able to
support their children
so you have middle class now a lot of
them going down
many ending up on the streets uh you
have a sadness there’s overall like
there’s a sadness in people
and that energy sort of takes an inertia
in and compiles so you feel like this
melees
in tehran i don’t want to paint it as
all terrible there’s
people smiling and living their lives
and not everyone’s suffering but a lot
of people
their lives are going downhill every
young person wants
out
like how much is the price of um chicken
gone up
let’s say 50 depression medication i was
told by a pharmacist 50
of the population is on depression meds
food costs have have at the low end i’ve
heard doubled in the last five months at
the high and i heard quadrupled
so these successes with sanctions
you’re crippling a country great but who
suffers
not the politicians and they never do
right it’s the politicians
with coffers of money but who suffers
out of this
iranians very in the the irony is
this is probably the most pro-american
country on the planet as far as like
pro-american people when i say i’m
italian
people are cool they’re like wow cool
it’ll be great when i say american it’s
like
way up here it’s crazy and they’re
getting pinched hard by their government
they’re getting pinched hard by the u.s
government
and ah it breaks my heart because this
is
this is one of the most hospitable open
cultures on planet earth and they’re
taking it from all ends
and so i just want to bring awareness to
this i just want to shout this out
because
you know people cannot understand this
unless well they understand it the most
when they live through it the second
stage would be me
being able to witness it and see it for
myself and then when you just hear on
the news
here are some sanctions being
implemented by these
these people that have very little
humanity in them
iran that’s one of the reasons why the
iranian economy is tanking right now and
we’re going to ramp this
up this is going to be a big squeeze
that’s what president trump means when
he says
maximum pressure nowadays people in my
country aren’t happy
as usual because of the bad situation
that we have
like what are the conversations at home
you guys try to avoid all this stuff or
you talk about it all the time
talk about it all the time but when you
hear a guy talk about it and it might
sound good from when you’re that far
detached from the humanity from humanity
but the reality on the ground
is i wish he could i think he even has
enough of a heart
or could overcome his ego enough if he
sat on a bench
in tehran and noticed the differences
after sanctions
might not feel so proud i i didn’t think
this
we would end up like this
because of the state of exactly right
now because
it’s really difficult to to live i hope
this brings amer
uh awareness to americans or or
foreigners
that you know iranians are feeling the
hurt right now
and iranians i want you to know that
um you don’t need to hear from me
obviously persian culture has been
through a lot it’s been through
challenges for thousands of years and
you will overcome whatever comes at you
right now and
know that all americans or westerners if
they knew your situation
would would be with you 100 percent
because
nobody likes to see others unjustly
get manipulated and maneuvered like this
sanctions uh john bolton donald trump
you can sound tough you can sound cool
it’s not cool it’s nothing to be proud
of it’s not
anything to stand on when you ruin
people’s lives
that’s it
that was video i tricked you
do you hate americans no
are you sure are you sure yeah really
behind hating american people
and we love all the people around the
world
[Applause]
is maximum pressure and i think what he
means by maximum pressure
is maximum pressure the aim is to drive
uh
iranian oil exports to zero we’re
working with other countries to get
the alternatives yeah
for ourselves for our situation but
let’s be clear we’re going to have
sanctions that even go beyond this we’re
not simply going to be content
with the level of sanctions that existed
under obama in 2015
more coming and even more important
perhaps we are actually going to have
very strict very tight enforcement
of the sanctions that do exist iran
right now is in the escape and evasion
mode they’re going to try and
get around the sanctions we’re
determined to prevent them
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