Agencies | Theran:
Iran has strongly criticised new US sanctions targeting Tehran, warning that Washington’s use of economic pressure against foreign governments and businesses could pose a broader threat to the sovereignty of independent nations.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei described the measures as extending beyond an economic confrontation between the United States and Iran, arguing that they could amount to a return to what he called “blatant, full-scale colonialism.”
Baghaei said Washington was attempting to influence how governments, banks, businesses and airports in other sovereign countries conduct legitimate trade with Iran.
“No government has the right to force foreign banks, enterprises, or airports, each operating under the exclusive jurisdiction of their own sovereignty, to refrain from engaging in legitimate trade with a third country,”
he was quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars news agency.
Baghaei particularly criticised US secondary sanctions, which can penalise foreign entities for conducting business with sanctioned Iranian individuals, companies or sectors.
He argued that such measures had no basis in international law and violated the principle of sovereign equality recognised under Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the UN Charter.
According to the Iranian spokesperson, economic coercion should be viewed as an international issue when one country attempts to dictate the economic choices of other sovereign states.
He further warned that the use of sanctions alongside measures such as a naval blockade could intensify the pressure on countries maintaining commercial relations with Iran.
Baghaei cautioned governments against yielding to what he described as US economic intimidation, arguing that continued compliance with such pressure could gradually weaken their ability to make independent economic and political decisions.
He said allowing one country to determine how other sovereign states conduct trade could ultimately lead to the “total erosion of national sovereignty.”
The Iranian official characterised the trend as a potential “catastrophic return to blatant, full-scale colonialism,” seeking to frame the sanctions dispute as an issue extending beyond Tehran and Washington.
Iran has repeatedly opposed US secondary sanctions, arguing that they place foreign governments and companies under pressure despite operating outside US jurisdiction.
Baghaei’s latest remarks broaden that argument, presenting the sanctions as a challenge to the wider international system and the principle that sovereign states should be free to determine their own economic and diplomatic relationships.
Tehran’s comments come amid continued tensions between Iran and the United States, with sanctions remaining one of Washington’s principal instruments for exerting economic pressure on the Iranian government.
