The impact of US sanctions on Iran began to occur after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal. The Trump administration has described these sanctions as the most severe of all of the history of sanctions against Iran.

The US administration says that the sanctions target the Iranian regime, not the people, but the reality is that the sanctions affect the daily life of the Iranian citizens. The BBC has monitored 5 elements that help to understand the impact of these sanctions on the Iranian citizens.

BBC journalist Kamilia Sadiqzadeh says in her photo report that when you don’t play according to the rules, there are sanctions that you have to pay, and the same is true for countries. She added: The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran since the 1979 revolution, and says that sanctions target the government, not the people. But through the following 5 points, I will show you how sanctions affect the daily life of the Iranians.

Pharmaceutical

Medicines have become more scarce and expensive for citizens, and although it is not assumed that the penalties for medicines apply their requirements, in reality they are applied indirectly.

Some drug suppliers are now refusing to sell their medicines to Iran to avoid being subject to US sanctions, which has caused shortages of medicines on the market, putting thousands of lives at risk.

There are people who suffer from cancer, epilepsy or hemophilia (hereditary hemorrhage) who are struggling to get treatment, and Iran is unable to manufacture some of these drugs locally, because it is difficult to import the basic components of them.

On the other hand, the United States says this is due to corruption and mismanagement.

Air planes

They are very old, and still have ashtrays at the backs, and some Iranians call them “flying shrouds.” It is not surprising that, during the past 25 years, more than two thousand people died in air accidents related to Iranian aircraft.

For 40 years, airlines in Iran have been struggling to develop and maintain their fleets, due to trade sanctions of 1979, after the hostages were held at the US embassy in Tehran.

Iran was subsequently subjected to further penalties for its nuclear program, but under the umbrella of the International Nuclear Deal in 2015, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities.

It appeared that companies such as Boeing and Airbus were selling nearly 200 new aircraft to Iran. But after 3 years, only a handful of aircraft arrived in Iran, before President Trump left the agreement, withdrawing export licenses, and safe flights cost a lot.

Ink and papers

Iran is dealing with a shortage of ink, and the price of imported paper has more than tripled, since America withdrew from the nuclear deal, not with the good news for newspaper and book publishers.

Many newspapers are well printed, with more papers than ever before, and with a significant restriction of freedom of the press in Iran, journalists and publishers say this will make it more difficult to hold government accountable for its actions.

Meat

One kilo of meat has become a luxury in Iran, as it used to cost 10 dollars before the new sanctions came into force, and now the price of meat is more than double that number.

Sanctions on Iranian banks made importing food difficult, resulting in  many people being forced to remove meat from their diet.

Nearly a quarter of restaurants in Tehran closed, and rationing goods for the first time since the Iraq war and Iran began in the 1980s.

Phone applications

Iranians, like other people, use their smartphones to book taxis and deliver food, but many international technology companies, such as Uber, no longer work in Iran. This has caused Iranian developers to produced their own applications, such as the Snapchat app, but the problem is that Iran has 9 million iPhone users. They cannot download these applications from the App Store, because of US sanctions, the store cannot distribute or do business with applications or developers associated with countries that are prohibited by America.

The Internet in Iran is strictly controlled, so young Iranian developers feel pressured from both sides, inside and outside the country, while neither Tehran nor Washington blames each other and holds them responsible for the sanctions, and they try to convince the ordinary Iranians that these sanctions do not target them.