TEHRAN – Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian ambassador to the Vienna-based international organizations, has described the new sanctions that the U.S. imposed on Iran as a “crime against humanity”, saying all capacities should be used to confront “these crimes”.

“It should be said that the unilateral and illegal sanctions of the U.S., of any kind and at any stage, are considered as a crime against humanity, although it may be said that these sanctions are not a new phenomenon, will not help America in imposing further pressures on Iran, and are mostly designed to serve political and propaganda goals,” Gharibabadi said in an Instagram post on Friday night, adding that Iran should use all of its capacities to confront “these crimes.”

The ambassador’s remarks came in response to U.S. fresh sanctions on Iran. On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on Iran, targeting “eighteen major Iranian banks”.

U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin said in a tweet that these sanctions were designed to cut Iran’s ties with the global financial system.

“Today, U.S. Treasury took further action to isolate the Iranian economy from the global financial system as the regime uses the financial sector to advance its malign agenda,” Mnuchin tweeted.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement on Thursday explaining the scope and the implications of the new sanctions.

Under these sanctions, “all property and interests in property of designated targets that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons,” according to the Treasury statement.

Iran strongly rejected the U.S. sanctions as “cruel, terrorist and inhumane,” saying the Americans cannot break the resistance of the Iranian people through imposing economic sanctions.
 
The U.S. claimed that the new sanctions do not “affect existing authorizations and exceptions for humanitarian trade, which remain in full force and effect” for the newly-designated Iranian banks.

But Gharibabadi said the U.S. has launched as “dirty game” to block Iran’s channels for humanitarian trade.

“The U.S. regime’s criminal measures to threaten the lives of ordinary people through economic terrorism know no end. This regime, in another measure, has designated eighteen Iranian banks. On one hand, it claims that sanctions do not affect the imports of medicines and foods, but on the other hand, it fully blocks the existing channels for paying the costs of importing these items. By now, this dirty and aberrational American game must have been known to everyone,” Gharibabadi said.
 

According to the ambassador, the Americans, who have a “dark record” in terms of violating human rights, have directly endangered the lives of ordinary people and their right to life, which is an indisputable human right.

He also called on Europe not to stop at regretting the U.S. “destructive measures.” Instead, Gharibabadi said, the Europeans have a “heavy obligation” of both countering U.S. “anti-human rights measures” and implementing their obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Gharibabadi said the U.S., through imposing maximum pressure on Iran, seeks to bring Iran back to the negotiating table and impose its conditions on it.

“By now, the U.S. must have understood that their strategy is not accepted by anyone in Iran,” pointed out the ambassador, accusing the U.S. of targeting the dignity and credibility of Iran and the Iranian people.

He noted, “Iran and the Iranians will do their utmost to counter U.S. measures and decrease the effects of the sanctions so that the U.S. fails to achieve their goals of exploiting [the sanctions on Iran] before and after the election.”

SM/PA