Iran condemns new US sanctions as assault on state sovereignty
The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman has condemned the United States’ announcement of new economic sanctions against Iran, arguing that the measures extend beyond economic pressure on Tehran and amount to an attempt at asserting authority over other sovereign states.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said, “The United States’ declaration of new economic sanctions on Iran is far more than continued unlawful ‘economic warfare’ against a single country. It is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations.”
“No State may lawfully compel foreign banks, enterprises, or airports - each subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its own sovereign - to renounce lawful commerce with a third State,” he added.
“Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law. They violate the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in Article 2(1) of the UN Charter and breach the customary prohibition on intervention affirmed by the International Court of Justice in the Nicaragua case. Economic coercion designed to force a sovereign State to alter its lawful policy choices constitutes an outright internationally wrongful act.”
The statement followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of new economic measures against Iran on Wednesday, accompanied by a warning that countries maintaining economic engagement with Tehran would face consequences.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he was announcing “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!”
He added that any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.
Iran warns of broader consequences
Baghaei reminded that such threats leveled against third countries were combined with an illegal naval blockade that the United States was trying to enforce against Iran’s vessels and ports.
The blockade, itself, equals “military aggression,” while the economic campaign is tantamount to trying to reduce the sovereignty of all other states to something provisional, conditional, and revocable at the whim of another power, the spokesman noted.
He described the end result as “a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism.”
‘Same bull. Different bullies’: Araghchi says US economic pressure doomed to failhttps://t.co/qJgyS0zHor
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Earlier, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also reacted to Trump’s announcement, saying the drive was doomed to fail like previous American pressure campaigns against Tehran over the past 14 years.
‘Same bull. Different bullies’: Araghchi says US economic pressure doomed to fail
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