TEHRAN- Iran's senior security official has condemned U.S. sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, urging the international community to band together and oppose Washington's unilateral policies.

On the heels of the fourth meeting of the Regional Security Dialogue in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Friday, Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), met with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev and called for resistance to U.S. unilateralism.

“The world must unite against the unilateral policies of the United States. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been subject to sanctions for the past 43 years, and has become an epitome of the ineffectiveness of sanctions imposed to dictate political will on independent countries,” he noted.

In the face of U.S. unilateral actions, he emphasized the need for strategic coordination between Tehran and Moscow, the two all-weather allies. 

“It seems as if sanctions against Russia will not be lifted once the Ukraine war comes to an end. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a coherent system of cooperation between the sanctioned countries on a strategic and long-term perspective,” Shamkhani suggested.

In the context of rapidly changing global dynamics, the top security official expressed satisfaction with talks between Iran and Russia at various levels, asking for the rise of the bilateral collaboration.

The SNSC secretary cited the growth of collaboration, as well as shared financial, banking, and tariff procedures among Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, as a vital step that can mitigate the impact of unlawful sanctions on the nations' economic and commercial connections.

Shamkhani also spoke about Western efforts to draw Russia into the Ukraine crisis, asserting that certain countries are using the conflict to carry out expansionist plans in the region and achieve their ambitious goals. 

“Such attempts need to be confronted seriously,” he underscored.

Iran's top security official went on to express alarm about what is happening in neighboring Afghanistan, including the rise of numerous terrorist groups.

“The lack of a broad-based government in the country is among the main reasons for the continuing instability and insecurity as well as mounting economic and livelihood pressure on ordinary people there,” he pointed out.

For his part, Patrushev said even if the Ukraine conflict had not erupted, the West would have imposed sanctions against Russia.

“The wide-ranging Western sanctions against Russia have created an opportunity for our people to come to terms with the futility of liberal political groups’ calls for full engagement and cooperation with the West,” he said.

The senior security official underlined that “Russia's special operation in Ukraine is just an excuse to impose extensive sanctions on our country. The West is determined to double down on its anti-Russia measures. The sanctions would have been imposed even if the Ukraine crisis had not sparked off.”

He said that the Russian operation in Ukraine revealed the U.S.'s establishment of chemical and biological facilities in the country, and that Moscow intends to disclose important pertinent papers in the near future.

The Russian security official also said, “Transit cooperation and completion of the International North–South Transport Corridor are among the most important steps the two countries must take,” emphasizing the importance of activating enormous collaboration capacities between Russia and Iran.