An Open Letter to Rebecca Babin: On Iranian Oil and Western Amnesia
Dear Rebecca Babin, Managing Director, CIBC Private Wealth, and countless financial analysts who echoed your sentiments across mainstream media platforms like Bloomberg: You expressed concern this week regarding rising oil prices, attributing them to the US establishing a blockade on ships attempting to transit to and from Iranian ports. You suggested a potential resolution might take 'weeks or
months,' even with a prospective 'deal' between the US and Iran. This framing, while common, is woefully incomplete and serves to normalize an illegal act of aggression. What your analysis, and much of the Western financial press, conveniently omits is the reality that this latest 'blockade' is neither an isolated incident nor a new development. The United States has been engaged in an economic
strangulation of Iran for over 45 years, a policy intensified with the unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, despite Iran's full compliance. This ongoing economic warfare includes crippling sanctions that target Iran's energy sector, finance, and shipping, directly impacting oil production and global supply chains long before anyone declared a
'blockade' this week. To present this as a sudden market disruption, rather than a continuation of a sustained campaign, is a profound disservice to understanding the actual dynamics at play. Perhaps it's time to connect a few dots beyond quarterly earnings reports. The US has maintained an economic blockade against Cuba for 62 years, costing that nation an estimated $144 billion. The economic