Ali

This protest was about all that, too.

But it was triggered by economic pain.

And one way sanctions can push countries towards change is by infuriating their citizens.

The economic pain people experience can lead people to pressure their governments to comply, to stop the pain.

And for a second in Iran, with those protesters in the street, it looked like sanctions might help achieve the goal of pushing the Iranian government towards change.

Ali managed to get home safely.

But in the days that followed, as people in Iran got connected back to the internet, he would learn about all the killing.

And I'm Mary Childs.

Today, as we hit publish on this episode, representatives from the U.S.

and Iran have just met in Oman after a week in which President Donald Trump threatened attacks and Iran continued to crack down on protesters.

Sanctions are supposed to avert war, but how different from war are they really?

So what are sanctions?

Sanctions are a tool countries use to try to get another country to do what it wants, like to stop being communist or to stop doing a war.

The idea is to influence political behavior without military force by imposing restrictions on trade and capital instead.

The U.S.

's sanctions on Iran have not always conformed to those expert recommendations.

Nonetheless, the U.S.

has had sanctions on Iran for basically the past 47 years.

Almost every U.S.

president, from Trump back to Jimmy Carter, has imposed some sanction.