Zarif slams new US regulations amplifying anti-Iran economic pressure
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned of Washington adopting new regulations which would merely exacerbate the economic terrorism targeting Iranian people and denounced the US for pursuit of double standards towards the Islamic Republic.
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"Contrary to its deceptive claims, new US regulations will aggravate #EconomicTerrorism on ordinary Iranians," Zarif said in a post on his official Twitter account.
The Iranian foreign minister pointed to earlier claims by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said in November last year that it is in Iran's best interests to toe the line and listen to Washington or else its people will pay the price.
"@SecPompeo voiced his delusion that Iranian people must bow to US "if they want to eat". Now, @USTreasury is targeting not merely food but also our imports of medicine," the top Iranian diplomat said.
Pompeo told BBC Persian that Iranian officials have to "make a decision that they want their people to eat."
Later in January, the US secretary of state said Washington’s tough sanctions against the Islamic Republic were aimed at giving the Iranian people a chance to have better lives.
"The sanctions on Iran have this ultimate goal: creating an outcome where the Iranian people can have better lives than they have today," Pompeo told Newsmax TV.
On Friday, the US Treasury Department announced that it had decided to facilitate sales of food and medicine to Iran.
The department said it had created a new humanitarian mechanism to ensure shipments of food and medicine can continue to be delivered to Iran, adding it would allow "permissible trade" to support the Iranian people while maintaining its “maximum pressure” policy against the Iranian government.
In a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the 74th session of the General Assembly in New York in September, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani slammed the United Nations for keeping mum on the crimes the US has been committing against the Iranian nation through the economic terrorism campaign, calling on the world body to break the silence and shoulder its responsibilities.
Referring to Washington’s harsh campaign of economic pressure and sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the president said “an aggressor government is committing all these crimes against an entire nation, while the UN has remained tight-lipped.” He added that this “shame will remain in history.”
