Sanctions by the U.S. and its allies, designed to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program, have left Iran largely isolated, but some House Republicans argue that more pain needs to be inflicted to get results. They invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to make that case. What have sanctions done to Iran so far? A January report by Kenneth Katzman, a specialist in Middle East affairs at the Congressional Research Service, offers a dramatic snapshot of the squeeze: In every year from 1995 to 2012, Iran enjoyed at least a measure of economic growth. Then 2013 happened. Conditions improved slightly in 2014, with gross domestic product growing 1 percent to 1.5 percent. That followed an interim agreement, reached in November 2013, that eased some of the sanctions in exchange for a temporary pause to aspects of Iran’s nuclear […]