Asfand Yar Batmagellich

I remember a conversation...

obviously with a taxi driver, not to Thomas Friedman myself, but where, you know, he asked me how much my flight had cost to come to Iran.

And what he was doing was mental math to understand how that related to his monthly wage.

What I was sensing, it later became clear to me, was that starting in 2012, Iran had experienced its first major economic contraction in what was essentially two decades.

And so for ordinary people, this was a blow.

They were experiencing increased inflation.

Their currency had devalued in a way that was wiping out their purchasing power.

The country was struggling to do basic banking with the international community.

The fundamental reason why Iran stopped experiencing robust growth after 2012 is the sanctions.

So there was famously a meeting in May of 2016 where Secretary of State John Kerry went to London and had this roundtable with senior executives from international banks.

And the message was exactly that.

It was it's safe to do business with Iran now.

Be careful, do your compliance.

But, you know, we actually want to see Iran reconnected.

The then chief legal officer for HSBC wrote this incredible op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he kind of told John Kerry to pound sand and just said that his bank was not going to re-engage Iran.

This culture of overcompliance has become an Achilles heel for the ability of, in particular the US, when the time comes to make a concession and to roll back the sanctions, you have to let economic activity resume.

And we're just very bad at that when it comes down to it.