TEHRAN - Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the U.S. “economic terrorism” on Iran has been expanding to the new level of “medical terrorism” which is not even permissible on the battlefield.

“This even ‘exceeds what would be permissible on the battlefield,” Zarif tweeted.

The Trump administration has slapped the harshest ever sanctions in history against Iran. It has introduced a total ban on Iran’s oil export with the aim of strangulating the Iranian economy. 

These illegal moves are taking place while Iran is hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, killing more than 2,600 people and infecting about 39,000.

Zarif enumerated a series of U.S. actions against Iran, from cyberattacks on the country’s infrastructure, the January 3 assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, mass punishment of Iranians through “maximum pressure” policy to closing all pathways to transfer of medical equipment and medicine to the country.

"US has gone from sabotage & assassinations to waging an economic war & #EconomicTerrorism on Iranians—to #MedicalTerror amidst #covid19iran," Zarif tweeted.

The chief diplomat urged the international community to stop supporting U.S. "war crimes" against Iran, urging the world to “stop obeying immoral and illegal sanctions” against Iranians.

While the United Nations and many countries have called on Washington to lift sanctions at the height of the global pandemic, the Trump administration is adding to the list of its sanctions on Iran. The newest ones were announced on Thursday by the U.S. Treasury Department.

In a letter to the G-20 economic powers on March 24, UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote: “I am encouraging the waiving of sanctions imposed on countries to ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and COVID-19 medical support. This is the time for solidarity not exclusion.”

Guterres added, “Let us remember that we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world.”

On the same date, Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, also said, “In a context of global pandemic, impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us.”

“At this crucial time, both for global public health reasons, and to support the rights and lives of millions of people in these countries, sectoral sanctions should be eased or suspended,” she said in a statement.

Tehran’s ambassador to the UN said on Wednesday that the sanctions against Iran have endangered "the lives of many people not just in Iran, but also across the globe."

“The continuation of the illegal US sanctions on Iran will only negatively affect Iran’s ability to contain the disease. Consequently, the Iranian people will suffer more as a result of this bankrupt policy, as will the other nations on our interconnected planet,” Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said in an opinion piece published by USA Today.

PA/PA