Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-08-31 · by Jeffrey D Sachs, Sybil Fares
Last week, Pakistan announced that it will not comply with the latest sanctions the United States imposed on Iran and will continue trading with its neighbour.
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States → announce → neighbour
The news came just days after China made a similar statement.
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China → come → statement
The sanctions announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on August 24 under “Operation Economic Outcast “ are supposed to be “the toughest sanctions in history” designed to impose “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world”.
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sanctions → announce → world
Earlier, President Donald Trump called it in a social media post “ECONOMIC D-DAY.”
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- → call → post
He promised “tremendous economic consequences” for any nation that extended Iran “any type of lifeline”.
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that → promise → lifeline
Six months of US bombing and naval blockade have produced no US victory, so the plan now is to starve Iran into capitulation.
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plan → produce → capitulation
The new approach is illegal, cruel and will fail for several reasons.
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approach → fail → reasons
Economic sanctions do not bring down governments determined to survive them.
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sanctions → bring → them
Yes, sanctions can impoverish populations, empower the security services that control smuggling and hand the targeted nation a rallying point built on US malice.
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that → impoverish → malice
But they do not topple governments.
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they → topple → governments
Bessent proposes to remove Iranian oil exports from a world that has already lost a fifth of its oil supply because the Strait of Hormuz is shut.
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Strait → propose → Hormuz
The US proposes to deepen a stagflationary shock already being borne by Europe, Japan, and its other allies, and orders those countries to enforce sanctions that will throttle their economies.
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that → propose → economies
Above all, the campaign is targeted against China, which buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
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which → target → exports
If the US sanction the Bank of China or the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Beijing will not respond with a mild diplomatic note.
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Beijing → sanction → note
It will restrict its rare earth exports, because it has already run this experiment once and won.
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it → restrict → experiment
In April 2025, China imposed export licensing on heavy rare earths in response to Trump’s tarrifs and within weeks American and European automakers were idling assembly lines for want of rare-earth magnets.
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automakers → impose → magnets
In October 2025, China announced a far more sweeping package and Washington folded, agreeing to pull back its own newly expanded restrictions on Chinese companies in exchange for a suspension of Beijing’s measures for a period of one year.
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Washington → announce → year
The April controls have never been lifted and the suspension of the October measures ends in November.
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suspension → lift → November
So Bessent has chosen this moment, just over two months before China’s expanded rare earth regime returns and weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due for a visit in Washington, to inform Beijing that it is either with the US or against it.
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it → choose → it
Beijing has made its position clear.
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position → make → ?
“China has made clear on many occasions its firm opposition to illicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or the authorisation of the UN Security Council.
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that → make → Council
Economic warfare and maximum pressure provide no solution,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian told journalists.
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Jian → provide → journalists
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
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Article → prohibit → state
The US repudiation of the UN Charter goes far beyond Iran.
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repudiation → go → Iran
Of all 193 UN member states, America is now the country least aligned with UN-based multilateralism.
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America → align → multilateralism
In January 2026, Washington withdrew from more than 60 international organisations.
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Washington → withdraw → organisations
In 2025, it voted with the international majority in just five percent of recorded UNGA resolutions.
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it → vote → resolutions
At this point, every government should draw three conclusions.
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government → draw → conclusions
First, the US has repudiated the UN Charter.
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US → repudiate → Charter
Third, relying on dollar-based trade leaves states vulnerable to US sanctions.
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relying → rely → sanctions
Around the world, countries are turning to new defence arrangements, such as the Mecca Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan.
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countries → turn → Arabia
They are also predictably moving away from settlements in US dollars and reducing their holdings of US treasury debt in their foreign reserves.
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They → move → reserves
They are also turning to China’s open-weight AI models to meet AI needs instead of paying for American proprietary models.
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They → turn → models
Thucydides’ ancient account of the Peloponnesian War is being read in our day as a mirror of the US–China rivalry.
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account → read → rivalry
Its most famous line is the taunt Athenian generals gave to the people of Melos in 416 BC, that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
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they → give → BC
Yet just a dozen years after the Athenian generals made their taunts, it was Athens that was defeated by Sparta.
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that → make → Sparta
The US now taunts Iran and other countries in the same tone.
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US → taunt → tone
Pride goeth before the fall and no government today is more arrogant than the US under Trump and his enforcer Bessent.
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government → goeth → Trump
Governments around the world will not follow the US blindly into disaster.
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Governments → follow → disaster
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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views → express → stance
