TEHRAN- The spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. administration’s re-imposition of sanctions against Venezuela connected to oil as a breach of international law and human rights.

On Saturday, Nasser Kanaani declared that the use of unilateral, unlawful sanctions as a weapon that inflicts irreversible harm on a nation’s people and economy is condemned as a breach of international law, human rights, and international norms and laws.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced its decision on Wednesday not to extend a license that was due to expire on April 18, which provided relief from oil sanctions on Caracas, over what it claimed to be the Venezuelan government’s failure to adhere to democratic principles ahead of elections in July.

In response to a deal reached by the administration of President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition in Barbados, the U.S. decided to temporarily ease certain sanctions in October of last year.

A transparent election overseen by foreign observers would be held in 2024, according to the U.S.-backed pact.

But the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s 15-year ban was maintained by the Supreme Court of Venezuela, which also affirmed that her potential replacement, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, was ineligible.

The world’s largest verified oil resource is found in Venezuela. However, years of harsh sanctions from the West have caused a sharp drop in productivity.

Following Maduro’s reelection in 2018, which the U.S. and other Western nations refused to acknowledge, the U.S. levied severe sanctions on Venezuela as retaliation against his administration. 

The U.S. sanctions have prevented PDVSA, the state-run oil corporation, from selling to specific markets since 2019.

Back in February, Kanaani asserted that the U.S. threat to re-impose sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry is illegal under international law and the UN Charter.

He also denounced the U.S.’s instrumental use of sanctions as a weapon to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations.

“Resorting to such measures is tantamount to direct intervention in the internal affairs of countries and a violation of the United Nations Charter,” he added. 

The Iranian spokesperson issued a warning, stating that such actions would only serve to fortify independent nations’ resolve and collaboration in opposing interventionist measures.

Days after the top court in that South American nation upheld the disqualification of an opposition presidential candidate, the U.S. vowed on to re-impose sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.

U.S. corporations who do business with Venezuela’s state-owned mining company Minerven had until February 13 to finish a “winddown of transactions” with the company, according to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.