TEHRAN -- Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations says certain countries use unilateral coercive measures against other countries as political leverage.
Such measures are a major obstacle to the provision of international humanitarian assistance, Majid Takht Ravanchi said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The international community is confronted with emerging challenges in trying to address humanitarian emergency condition, Takht Ravanchi added.
The envoy condemned “imposition of the unilateral coercive measures by certain states, which use them as political leverage in their bilateral relations.”
He denounced the measures “as one of the main obstacles hindering international assistance as well as one of the main sources in creating humanitarian crises.”
He went on to say that Iran, which is exposed to a variety of natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, dust and sandstorms, has severely been damaged by illegal unilateral sanctions by the United States.
The U.S. began unleashing a whole host of sanctions against Iran following the victory of the latter’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
It temporarily suspended some of the bans following the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear accord between the Islamic Republic and world countries.
Upon conclusion, the JCPOA was ratified by the UN Security Council as its Resolution 2231.
The U.S., however, quit the agreement under former president Donald Trump in 2018 and restored the economic measures that the accord had lifted.
The International Court of Justice issued an order on October 3, 2018, unanimously requiring Washington to remove any impediments on the importation of foodstuffs as well as medicines and medical devices to Iran.
The Iranian envoy called on the world body “to investigate deviation of humanitarian aid and non-humanitarian activities carried out under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance.”