TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday condemned the United States’ new economic sanctions as an assertion of “extraterritorial sovereignty” over independent UN member states, arguing the measures amount to unlawful coercion and a return to “full-scale classic colonialism.”
“The United States’ declaration of new economic sanctions on Iran is far more than continued unlawful ‘economic warfare’ against a single country. It is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations,” Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement posted on X.
Baghaei said no state may lawfully compel foreign banks, enterprises or airports to renounce lawful commerce with a third state. 
He said such secondary sanctions “find no foundation in international law,” violate the UN Charter’s principle of sovereign equality, and breach the customary prohibition on intervention affirmed by the International Court of Justice in the Nicaragua case.
“Economic coercion designed to force a sovereign State to alter its lawful policy choices constitutes an outright internationally wrongful act,” he said.
The statement followed President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday of new economic measures against Iran, accompanied by a warning that countries maintaining economic engagement with Tehran would face consequences. Trump said he was 
announcing “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!”
Baghaei said the sanctions were combined with an illegal naval blockade the U.S. is trying to enforce against Iran’s vessels and ports. 
The blockade equals “military aggression,” while the economic campaign is “tantamount to trying to reduce the sovereignty of all other states to something provisional, conditional, and revocable at the whim of another power,” he noted.
“The end result is a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism,” Baghaei said.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also reacted, saying the drive was doomed to fail like previous American pressure campaigns against Iran over the past 14 years. “Same bull. Different bullies,” Araghchi said on X.