Relations between Iran and the West have been characterized by tension following the Islamic Revolution in Iran. During this period, the Western countries (including the US and Europe) have used various tools to confront Iran. Undoubtedly, sanctions constitute one of the most important and most commonly used tools that the West has used against Iran during past years. Since sanctions are a common phenomenon in international relations, they can be applied through various models and strategies. The main question of the present paper is which model applies to sanctions imposed against Iran and which fields are especially affected by them? The hypothesis that has been offered in answer to this question is that sanctions imposed against Iran can be expounded through two models of “preventing access to resources,” and “political collapse,” with government structures and economy being the main fields that they target. Findings show that most sanctions imposed against Iran aim to prevent the country’s access to necessary resources and their severity has been gradually increased to target many government structures and, in recent years, the very lifeline of the Iranian economy. The authors argue that there are also signs to show that the political collapse model has been also applied within framework of the imposed sanctions.
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