TEHRAN – Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, said on Saturday that the U.S. unilateral sanctions imposed on 80 million Iranians amounts to “economic terrorism”.

Masjedi said the United States’ hegemonic government has violated all the legal norms and the international humanitarian law by imposing arbitrary sanctions on Iran and initiating a full-scale economic war against the Iranian people, IRNA reported.

This economic war has been rightly described as economic terrorism, the ambassador said.

With the grace of God, the criminal acts of the U.S. and its allies will fail once again, he predicted.  

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran after he withdrew the U.S. from the multinational nuclear deal last year.

Trump has even introduced full ban on Iran’s oil export, a move which has been described as an economic war against Tehran.

The sanctions were imposed regardless of Iran’s full compliance with its commitments under the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was struck between Iran and six major powers, including the United States in July 2015 and went into effect in January 2016.

Iran’s leaders have described Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran as an act of “economic terrorism” aimed to pressure the Iranian people.

In an interview with BBC Persian in November 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iranian officials must listen to Washington “if they want their people to eat”.

MH/PA