According to remarks by Secretary of State John in New York yesterday afternoon, the answer is: yes.

Speaking at a Q-and-A session on the Iran deal with Thomson Reuters, Sec. Kerry argued that – despite the condition in the UN Security Council resolutions that sanctions would be lifted should Iran enter into negotiations – the U.S. would maintain many of its sanctions even following the implementation of the recent nuclear deal. In Sec. Kerry’s words:

Not only did they come to the table to negotiate, but they got an agreement. And we’re still not lifting all the sanctions. We’re leaving in place the missile sanctions for eight years, the arms sanctions for five years, the primary sanctions for who knows how long – forever…

The “primary sanctions” refers to the U.S. trade and investment embargo with Iran – the prohibitions of which are codified at 31 C.F.R. Part 560 (otherwise known as the ‘Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations’). These sanctions prohibit virtually all transactions between the United States and Iran, including the import, export, reexport, sale, or supply of goods, services, or technology to Iran, as well as the facilitation by U.S. persons of transactions between Iran and non-U.S. persons, amongst other prohibitions.

In short, if you’re a U.S. person, there’s a lot you can’t do with Iran and very little you can.

Considering that the U.S. trade embargo has been with us for more than two decades (the ban on the importation of Iranian-origin goods even longer), you can’t blame Sec. Kerry. Certainly, his is a conservative estimate as to the ultimate future of the U.S. trade embargo with Iran, but its future is clearly an indefinite one. There’s nothing in the immediate term that would warrant its removal.

What I want to know, though, is this: Some people talk of the ‘forever war’. Is this the ‘forever embargo’?