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Zarif: US approach to sanctions 'pathological and reckless addiction'

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 22 December 2019 5:55 PM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Washington's hostile policy of imposing sanctions is indicative of a "reckless addiction" that the White House has toward not only Iran but also other world countries.

"The US' approach to sanctions betrays a pathological and reckless addiction–a condition that renders no bounds or boundary to what the US may or may not do," Zarif said in a tweet on Sunday.

The Iranian foreign minister added that "this addictive behavior affects friends and foes alike, unless collectively pushed back."

Zarif made the remarks two days after Iran's ambassador to the United Nations censured the United States' sanctions against the country, saying the measures were negatively affecting the daily lives of millions of ordinary Iranians.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, speaking at a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Friday, said the sanctions "are neither short of war nor better than or an alternative to war," and that they are actually tantamount to war "but by other means and names."

He further noted that Washington has extended its sanctions against Iranians through weaponizing food and medicine, and in total disregard of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, which ordered the US on October 3, 2018, "to lift sanctions linked to humanitarian goods and civil aviation imposed against Iran."

Tensions have been running high between Iran and the United States since May 2018, when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the "toughest ever" sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Since quitting the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Trump has been running a "maximum pressure" campaign to force Iran into negotiating a new deal that addresses its ballistic missile program and regional influence.

Iran, which had been fully complying with all of its commitments despite the US withdrawal and the Europeans' failure to abide by their obligations under the deal, began scaling down its commitments in early July.