The Old and New Sanctions

When I went back to the old country in 2008 after more than 6.5 years (which I admit now it was a big mistake and not just for the sake of going there but the purpose of it) I visited a few friends. M. E. was one of them. I later met him in 2014 again, during my 3rd trip to that part of the globe in the past 17 years or so. M. E. is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering in the same school that I did my degree, although that's not why I call him M. E.! That's his initials! Despite of the fact that he was from a religious family, we became friends, particularly in the last years of the university.

Now back to this side of the globe(!), after my return to Canada from the third trip I received an e-mail from him requesting help, once. A technical assistance, perhaps I should say.

His company had participated in a bid and they wanted to build a sort of stack and he wanted to make sure that the stack was resistant to wind. It must have been a long one! I guess that was what he wanted to make sure of. He was looking for a software to perform that calculation. 

My first question was: Aren't you, or anyone in your company, able to calculate that?! Aren't you a graduate of Mechanical Engineering with nearly 20 years of experience?! Of course I didn't ask the questions from him because he's my friend after all. I should stress here that M. E. has always been known as one of the smartest and most prominent graduates of the program. That's why I was surprised. Despite this surprise I contacted a number of the companies and then an American company responded that they would so it. I can't really recall how the company was found or why it was an American company not a Canadian one but I asked M. E. to send me the drawings and he did. I then forwarded them to the company and the answer was interesting and surprising at the same time. The company refused to do the work because of the sanctions imposed on the country at the time, quite similar to the ones that are being imposed now. 

We were both shocked as how they had found about the origin of the drawings and I still don't know how but they must have had methods! 

(Photo: This picture might seem unrelated but this is showing an Iranian oil platform in Persian Gulf when it was attacked by Americans in 1988. The US claimed that Iran used this and other platforms to attack tankers)