Speaking to Al Jazeera, Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council says sanctions are not having the effect intended. He

said that the country has adapted to sanctions over the past three decades, “private businesses are pushed out the economy by the sanctions and illegal enterprises, smugglers, all these enterprises that are supported and part of state actually benefit”. “When you have measures like this… in fact what the strategy is starting to become is a collective punishment to impose suffering on ordinary Iranians to put pressure on the Iranian regime,” he said.