‘The human cost of economically outcasting Iran’

This is apropos a letter to the Editor titled “The human cost of economically outcasting Iran” by this writer, which was carried by the newspaper on Thursday, Friday and yesterday.

International humanitarian law also prohibits using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The legal threshold is not established merely because sanctions produce hardship; the conflict context, conduct and intent must be proved.

But the rule makes one point unmistakable: food, water, medicine and objects indispensable to civilian survival cannot legitimately become weapons against a population. Where sanctions, blockades or financial restrictions obstruct those essentials, humanitarian exemptions must work in practice, not merely appear in official documents.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026