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That's a little one sided don't you think?

Iran's despotic leader has publicly stated that they would love to wipe Israel off the map. They're a much larger and more populous nation with massive petroleum reserves and one of the top ten largest militaries in the world by enlisted count. Israel is completely justified in seeing Iran as an existential threat.

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Do sanctions even do anything if the leader is indeed despotic? It's not like typical Iranians can go out and protest.

Sanctions and trade deals are not all-or-nothing mechanisms. They can be increased/decreased to incentivize nations to alter behavior. They are especially effective when you can selectively punish industries within a nation that support the leader, to help provide more economic resources to opposition leaders.

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