KUALA LUMPUR: Iran said that the United States’ sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Dr Mohammad Javad Zarif, is illegal.
Iran’s ambassador to Malaysia, Marzieh Afkham, said that the US’s latest restrictions are part of its policy in waging economic terrorism against the Iranian people and bringing pressure to bear on their elected representatives.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran deems such unlawful sanctions a flagrant infringement of the fundamental principles of diplomatic law, in particular, the principle of inviolability and immunity of high-ranking foreign officials, including immunity of incumbent ministers of foreign affairs, as a universally accepted norm and rule of customary international law,” she said in a statement.
Marzieh added that based on past experience, the sanctions would fail utterly and have no impact on the endeavours of either Iran’s government, or Zarif.
The US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against the Iranian Foreign Minister by freezing assets he may have in America.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions against Zarif were for implementing the reckless agenda of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Zarif, in turn, tweeted that the US had imposed sanctions on him because it considered him as a threat to its agenda.