TEHRAN – Russia has blasted the United States for trying to substitute the UN Security Council with regard to Iran, urging the U.S. to stop humiliating itself in such pointless endeavor.

“Wrong approach again…US playing a ‘world policeman’, substituting UN Security Council is an unwelcome role,” Deputy Russian Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy tweeted on Monday.

“We are doing and will be doing business with #Iran and it’s not up to US to tell us or others what they can or can’t do. Stop humiliating US in this pointless endeavor!” he added.

The tweet came after Washington blacklisted two Chinese men and six Chinese entities for having dealt with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) Group and, in some cases, helping it evade U.S. sanctions.

“Today, we are sanctioning mainland-China and Hong Kong entities and individuals for conduct related to the sanctioned proliferator the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a tweet on Monday.

“Our warning is clear: If you do business with #IRISL or its subsidiaries, you risk U.S. sanctions,” Pompeo warned.

The U.S. State Department also announced that Reach Holding Group (Shanghai) Company Ltd.; Reach Shipping Lines; Delight Shipping Co., Ltd.; Gracious Shipping Co. Ltd.; Noble Shipping Co. Ltd.; and Supreme Shipping Co. Ltd had “knowingly sold, supplied, or transferred to Iran significant goods or services used in connection with the shipping sector of Iran.”

It accused Reach Holding Group and its Reach Shipping Lines unit of helping IRISL and its subsidiaries, E-Sail Shipping Company Ltd. and Hafez Darya Arya Shipping Company (HDASCO), evade U.S. sanctions.

The new U.S. sanctions are in line with the “maximum pressure” campaign that the U.S. imposed on Iran in 2018 after it withdrew from the historic Iran nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA, endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, was signed between Iran, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the European Union, Russia, and China on July 14, 2018. However, U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal on May 8, 2018, and returned sanctions and imposed new harsh ones.

Professor Hossein Askari, who teaches international business at the George Washington University, says the U.S. has fallen into moral abyss. 

“After WWII, America was generally admired around the world. America helped rebuild a ravaged Europe and assisted other countries around the world. But slowly America started to go down a different road, namely, empire-building and support of dictators to do its bidding. There is an excellent book by Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire that lays out how America has built this hidden empire. My own book Collaborative Colonialism argues how the United States has become a colonial power by supporting dictators around the world. Yes, America says that it wants democratic governance throughout the world but it has dozens of bases around the world and uses illegal covert operations and military might to bully most countries into submission. Its use of force is made more potent by its collaboration with oppressive dictators to get what it wants—just look at Saudi Arabia and Egypt to name just a couple. People who suffer and have little freedom see America’s support for their oppressive rulers and are not big fans of the United States. Can you blame them? America has historically helped people around the world when they face natural catastrophes such as storms and earthquakes but today America is causing misery by its inhumane economic sanctions in countries such as Iran where the supply of food and medicine is threatened,” Professor Askari tells the Tehran Times.

MH/PA