Iran condemns US economic sanctions as unlawful coercion

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has strongly condemned the United States' latest economic sanctions against Iran, describing them as an act of unlawful economic warfare that violates international law.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Baghaei wrote that the new sanctions are "far more than continued unlawful 'economic warfare' against a single country." He argued that they represent "an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations."

Baghaei emphasized that no state may lawfully compel foreign banks, enterprises, or airports—each subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its own sovereign—to renounce lawful commerce with a third state. He stated that such secondary sanctions "find no foundation in international law," as they violate the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in Article 2(1) of the UN Charter and breach the customary prohibition on intervention affirmed by the International Court of Justice in the Nicaragua case.

He further noted that "economic coercion designed to force a sovereign State to alter its lawful policy choices constitutes an outright internationally wrongful act."

Baghaei also linked the sanctions to broader US actions, saying that when combined with a naval blockade amounting to military aggression, these demands reduce the sovereignty of all other states to something provisional, conditional, and revocable at the whim of another power. He warned that compliance purchases no immunity or respect; it merely concedes that one's banks, enterprises, and airports operate only under a foreign licence.

He concluded that the end result would be "the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism."

According to Mehr News Agency, these remarks were made in response to the US administration's announcement of new sanctions on Iran. The report did not provide additional details on the specific sanctions or the context of the naval blockade mentioned by Baghaei.