Iran and its powerful ally Russia yesterday slammed new Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its suspect nuclear program, saying they were illegal and futile.
The unilateral measures against Iran’s financial, petrochemical and energy sectors announced on Monday by the US, Britain and Canada amounted merely to “propaganda and psychological warfare,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
They were “reprehensible” and would prove ineffective, he said.
‘UNACCEPTABLE’
Russia — which with China had blocked any possibility of the Western steps going before the UN Security Council for approval — took a sterner view, saying in a foreign ministry statement the sanctions were “unacceptable and against international law.”
The declarations set the stage for a hardening of diplomacy over Iran and its nuclear program. The issue has already generated speculation that Israel is mulling air strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.
The US and its allies cited a Nov. 8 report by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) asserting “credible” evidence of Iranian research programs for nuclear weapons as justification for their new sanctions.
“As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime,” US President Barack Obama said in a written statement as the sanctions were unveiled.
Iran, which has dismissed the IAEA report as “baseless” and biased, insists its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful, civilian purposes.
The country is already subject to four sets of UN sanctions designed to force it to give up uranium enrichment, along with additional, unilateral sanctions by the US and the EU.
FINANCIAL
The latest sanctions put more pressure on Iran’s financial sector, with the US and Britain invoking anti-terrorist laws to target Iran’s central bank and other financial institutions.
Washington has declared Iran of “primary money-laundering concern” — a label that could dissuade non-US banks and businesses dealing with it under threat of US reprisals.
London said it was “ceasing all contact” between its financial system and that of Iran.
Canada said it was halting “virtually all transactions” with Iran.
Mehmanparast said the sanctions “show the hostility of these countries towards our people.”
However, he predicted they would be fruitless because trade with the US and Britain was already at a minimum.
“With these resolutions ... they think they can pressure our people to give up their rights [to nuclear energy]. But they’re wrong,” Mehmanparast said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of