US sanctions against Iran “are neither short of war nor better than or an alternative to war,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said.
“They are actual war but by another means and name, pure and simple,” Takht-Ravanchi said, speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Thursday, with his remarks quoted by Mehr News.
“The US, through weaponising food and medicine and in total disregard of [the] 3 October 2018 ruling of the [International Court of Justice], has extended its sanctions even to other humanitarian goods,” the diplomat added. In October 2018, the ICJ ruled that the US imposition of sanctions against humanitarian goods to Iran was a violation of the 1955 US-Iranian Treaty of Amity, and demanded that these be dropped.
According to Takht-Ravanchi, the US’s policy of maximum pressure, which targets “millions of Iranians,” is a form of “collective punishment” which is “prohibited even in armed conflicts.”
“By any measure, the US sanctions are illegitimate, immoral, inhumane and cruel. It is a shame that the US bullying has resulted in discontinuation of the export of certain medicines to Iran, causing a nightmare for some patients,” the ambassador said.
Takht-Ravanchi clarified that US restrictions threaten children and adults suffering from cancers and various rare diseases with the risk of death. “US maximum pressure policy and sanctions are tantamount to economic terrorism which [is] killing innocent people. Therefore, those who have been involved in designing, advocating and executing these sanctions must be held accountable,” he suggested.
The ambassador also stressed that his country remains “committed to the implementation of the” Iran nuclear deal, but noted that “continued inaction” by the deal’s European signatories has left his country with “no other option than to act and take the necessary measures to cure the imbalance created,” including through increasing uranium enrichment levels beyond those outlined in the nuclear agreement.
The ambassador also reiterated that Tehran would not engage in talks with the US unless it was on an equal footing, saying that talks would first require the US to drop its sanctions. “Iran does not negotiate under the threat of a sword,” he said.
After scrapping its commitments to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Washington slapped Tehran with a series of tough sanctions targeting individuals, companies, the Iranian government and the country’s banking and energy sectors. In addition to Iran, the sanctions threaten to punish any country, company or individual doing business with the Islamic Republic.
