The United States primarily imposes sanctions on countries such as Iran and Cuba because they do not align with American interests. If that were not the case, why wouldn't the U.S. place sanctions on countries like Saudi Arabia [1] and Israel [2, 3], despite the abundance of reports from reputable international human rights organizations citing human rights violations in these countries? The issue of human rights is merely an excuse.

Sanctions result in economic hardship for the people within a country, which naturally leads them to seek someone to blame, often the nation imposing the sanctions. Such an environment is particularly conducive to fostering animosity towards the West, providing people with more reasons to harbor anti-American sentiments.