The big news of this weekend was that Iran has stated it is willing to engage in direct talks with the United States regarding their highly disputed nuclear program. Proponents of U.S. economic sanctions are hailing this as a major victory in the fight to show that sanctions work. While the development surely seems like a win for those proclaiming that sanctions have impacted Iran’s nuclear calculus, there should be some consideration that it might not be U.S. sanctions that caused Iran to come to the table, but rather, multilateral sanctions that have successfully applied sufficient pressure to bring Iran to the negotiating table with the U.S. In particular, the latest round of E.U. sanctions appear to have as much to do with Iran’s new interest in discussing its nuclear program.

In truth, the increasing sanctions applied by the U.S. do not appear to have done much to Iran’s willingness to negotiate regarding its nuclear program. Moreover, broad U.S. sanctions have been in place against Iran for over 17 years, a period in which Iran’s economy not only survived, but in certain respects grew. Much of the damage we are seeing to Iran’s economy now is coming at the hand of the multilateral sanctions applied not only from the U.S., but more importantly from the E.U. It should be no surprise then that Iran’s new found willingness to talk with the U.S. about its nuclear program comes only days after the E.U.’s latest expansion of economic sanctions against Iran. This latest round of E.U. sanctions appears as if it could have devastating consequences for Iran, with prohibitions on a range of trading activities.

The U.S., however, does deserve some credit. Indeed, it was the U.S. policy of lobbying the world and engaging in secondary boycotting–sanctioning targets who deal with those sanctioned parties engaged in nefarious activity–which pushed the E.U. and others to impose strict sanctions against Iran that are decimating the value of the Rial. Therefore, although U.S. sanctions have not by themselves brought Iran to the negotiating table, U.S. sanctions policy seems to have done just that.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.