The focus of this panel discussion was the meeting just held in the United Nations Security Council at which three European signatories to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), France, the U.K. and Germany, effectively set the way for reimposition of harsh sanctions against Iran, claiming that Teheran was in violation of the conditions of the JCPOA as regards inspections of its nuclear facilities and other measures to ensure that it was not enriching uranium to weapons grade. This means that international sanctions on Iran will automatically return in October. However, China and Russia have both declared that they will not apply sanctions on Iran, whatever others may do.
My fellow panelist in this program was Beirut-based Ali Rizk, a Security and Political analyst who clearly is well informed on the issues and provided stimulating commentary that I partially agreed with. We disagreed principally on who was the greater influencer of the European decision – Israel or the United States. Rizk suggests that the European Troika decided to reinstate sanctions on Iran as an offset to their recognition of the Palestinian State.
We both believe that the reimposition of sanctions has little or nothing to do with what Iran has done. We both see this affair as relating to the Russia-Ukraine war, whether because Europe is punishing Iran for its support to Russia (Rizk) or because for the cowardly European (and U.S.) bullies, it is easier and safer to pick on Iran than to go head-to-head against Russia in a military confrontation.
Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write.
Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975).
After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility.
From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.
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Gilbert Doctorow 