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Apple Is Pulling Apps By Iranian Developers From The App Store To Comply With US Sanctions (buzzfeed.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is pulling apps created by Iranian developers that are specifically designed for people in Iran from its App Stores to comply with US sanctions, The New York Times reports. Apple does not sell its products in Iran and an Iranian version of the Apple App Store doesn't exist, but smuggled iPhones are popular among wealthy Iranians. Iranian developers have created thousands of apps for these users and offer them on App Stores in other countries including the US App Store. For the last few weeks, Apple has been removing Iranian food delivery and shopping apps, and on Thursday, it removed Snapp, an Uber-like ride hailing app that is popular in Iran.
You just rent your hardware and software from Apple, you don't own it. Silly people.
The point of sanctions is to force (or entice) someone to do something.
But the sanctions stick only works if you're willing to stop when they do whatever it is you want.
Short of invading (which would be much, much harder than Iraq), there's no way we can stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We can't even stop North Korea from having nuclear weapons, and for much the same reason: they don't have to shop around the world for yellowcake. They can dig uranium right out of their own soil.
And Iran is a far more technologically advanced nation than North Korea. It has 30x the GDP too. So we can't use sanctions to force them not to develop nuclear weapons. The most we could do is convince them that they're better off without nukes.
So Iranian sanctions only have a chance of working if you have some kind of end game.
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Apple also recently removed VPN apps used by Chinese people to avoid the Great Firewall and read and say things their govt doesn't want them to read and say, after pressure from the Chinese government.
Central control is dangerous, even when the party with the control is a "good guy". They can be leaned on by others with the power to hurt them, and have to do that other's bidding. Or they can just screw up and brick 100 million IoT devices which are centrally controlled.
The original idea of the internet was DEcentralization, but consumer behavior has pushed towards more and more centralization. Not just Apple, look also to Facebook and others gaining control over what used to be a distributed communication network. That centralization plays right into the hands of authoritarian all over the world who see themself as the masters of everyone else.
Be careful! If we destroy the decentralized internet, it will be very hard to ever get it back.
...removing Iranian food delivery and shopping apps, and on Thursday, it removed Snapp, an Uber-like ride hailing app that is popular in Iran.
Thus neutralising yet another key component of Iran's uranium enrichment industry's supply chain ... or not.
Not sure, it doesn't seem like many people gave the US any sanctions when they actually did use them so the point about sanctions is grandstanding by bigger nations, thus the argument is moot.
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The same way two Administrations earlier we tried the same with North Korea? That played out beautifully, didn't it?
Rather, because they do understand it better than you do...
Israel stopped Iraq's nuclear-weapons program without invading. Iran's is better protected, but our weapons today are much better than Israel's were in 1981.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
actually new sanctions bill (against north korea, iran and russia ) was opposed by trump administration(on the ground it limited executive branch's ability to conduct diplomacy with flexibility), but was passed with overwhelming(veto proof) bipartisan support by house and senate.
https://www.usatoday.com/story...
stop posting uniformed nonsense, stay informed and keep up!
The thing is that sanctions hardly change anything. The sanctioned countries radicalize even more and hatred grows within the population because many end up thinking that the US is to blame for their poverty (which might or not be true). I don't have a solution for this problem, but perhaps it all starts calling them "rogue" just because they have a different mindset. I don't think Iran will start nuking everyone else just because they have nuclear power. Cuba is not going to invade other countries. North Korea would bomb Seoul back to the stone age with or without sanctions if they were to do it. This is more a "legalize it" kind of debate, I think.
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one poke in the eye at a time.
How is Iran a rogue nation? What right do we have to criticise them? A country that has not posed a threat to anyone wants the right to defend itself from those (including the US) that threaten it. Why shouldn't they? Instead going around threatening countries the one thing that would work far better would be an incentive to take a different path. The US has never tried that. The Iranians are not a poor people as you suggest and if you went there you would be shocked by how different it is to the propaganda on TV. Iraq was a major ally of ours in that area until out of the blue we destroyed a civilised country as thanks for helping us. We did not beat Iraq as they relied on us for their defence so in reality we beat ourselves. Yes, Iraq gassed Kurds with gas we supplied and using aircraft we were the ground crew for and knew the flight plans of. They attacked Iran for us several times with WMDs we gave them. So Iran has good reason to believe that we will do harm and that they do have good reason to do all they can to defend themselves and also that doing what the US is bullying them to do will not get a good result. Why should they, a long time enemy expect better than a long time ally? They have no reason whatsoever to roll over and every reason to develop whatever they can to defend themselves.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Sanctions however don't hurt the government of the target country, as those in power will still have their own black market channels to get whatever they want. On the other hand, these sanctions do hurt:
American companies - like Apple, all those potential customers in Iran will now go elsewhere, probably to a chinese or russian vendor who will happily supply to Iran.
Iranian people - now have less choice, and will lose any investment they made in existing devices or apps and will have to deal with reduced functionality of their existing devices, as well as having less choice and/or higher prices for products they may want to buy.
In fact this HELPS the Iranian government, because they can now point to the fact american companies won't sell to them and use it as propaganda against america. Look they are the bad guys, they won't let you have the shiny toys you want...
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Go look up the number of times in history that Iran has attacked another country.
Then go look up the number of times that another country has attacked Iran.
Then, realize you've been duped by effective propaganda, and stop it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The same way two Administrations earlier we tried [nytimes.com] the same with North Korea? That played out beautifully [washingtonpost.com], didn't it?
Iran and North Korea are not comparable in this instance. North Korea is a military dictatorship, controlled either by the Kim family, or a small cadre of folks using the Kims as figureheads. It is incredibly closed and repressive, and who's average citizens are kept in a state of deprivation, with little to no access to outside world views. The military in NK knows that the only way they can hold on to power, and their lifestyles, is by making the idea of attacking them so unpalatable that the rest of the world will just let them go on.
Iran, on the other hand, is a large country (some 80 million people), with a large and growing middle class. Due to the various wars, and other demographic shifts, it's also a very young country with an above average number of young people, all of whom were born close to, or after, the revolution against the Shaw. These people generally enjoy a decent standard of living, are relatively worldly, and for the most part are quite moderate. Despite being a theocracy, the Ayatollahs know they serve at the pleasure of their population, if they go too far, we would likely see another revolution.
The simple fact is that Iran already has nuclear breakout capability. If they choose to run a crash program to build a warhead, there is little that anyone can do to stop them. All isolating them, and the 50+ million young people who live there, will do is make them more resentful of the west, increasing the danger.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
Technically, a country is considered "rogue" if it does not play in the UN's various treaty regimes (e.g., IAEA) , or violate terms of a UN security council resolution (e.g., United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 disallowing Iran to test ballistic missile tech).
Probably isn't "fair", but things in geo-politics are rarely ever fair.
Despite president Carter's totally inept handling of the Shah (despite being warned by the State Department) that resulted in the anti-USA escalation after his overthrow, I doubt the USA will soon forgive Iran for allowing the embassy to be overrun and the subsequent taking the hostages (non "rogue" nations are supposed to respect diplomatic immunity and simply "expel" diplomats). I suspect the USA will continue to apply the "rogue" label (whether still actually true or not) w/o giving them the benefit of the doubt for the for the foreseeable future as long as their interests are not aligned to the USA.
FWIW, it appears that Iran and Israel are pretty much aligned for conflict soon. Iran's support of Hezbollah and Hezbollah's increasing role in the ISIL/Syria war mean that if al-Assad and Syria prevail (and it looks likely), Hezbollah will effectively be once again primed for mobilization against Israel. I doubt Israel will like that scenario and I doubt that Iran's interests in this matter aligns with the USA's interests in the region so I guess Iran will continue to wear the "rogue" label for a while.