Iran condemns use of unilateral sanctions as political leverage in relations between countries

Such sanctions are “a major obstacle to international humanitarian efforts”, Zahra Ershadi, Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said at a General Assembly meeting on humanitarian aid on Tuesday.

Ershadi went on to say that those sanctions are also “a breeding ground for all kinds of human crises across the globe.”

She touched upon sanctions on Iran, saying the country “has suffered tremendously from the additional weight of unlawful and illegal unilateral sanctions.”

Back in May 2018, the US began to unilaterally impose sanctions against Iran after the former left the Iran nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The US administration, under former president Donald Trump, launched what it called a maximum pressure campaign against Iran at the time, targeting the Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” sanctions.

Although Trump failed to reach its professed goals with his maximum pressure campaign, the bans have badly hurt the Iranian population.

The sanctions, preserved under the Joe Biden administration, have restricted the financial channels necessary to pay for basic goods and medicine, undermining supply chains by limiting the number of suppliers willing to facilitate sales of humanitarian goods to the country.

Ershadi also expressed Tehran’s concern about deviation of humanitarian aid and non-humanitarian activities undertaken under “the pretext of the responsibility to protect.”

She voiced Iran’s concern over the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and Yemen.

She pointed to “the massive influx of displaced Afghans to neighboring countries, particularly Iran,” saying as winter approaches and the situation of the Afghan people — especially women, girls and children — continues to worsen.

She stressed that the timely provision of humanitarian aid and release of Afghanistan’s frozen assets should in no way be politicized.