Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht-Ravanchi

United Nations, October 6 (RHC)-- Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations says sanctions against countries are tantamount to a “terrorist act” as they target the daily lives of ordinary people.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi made the remarks in the UN General Assembly's Sixth Committee on Tuesday while he was outlining the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the fight against terrorism.

Iran's permanent representative to the UN condemned all forms of terrorism, including economic terrorism and pharmaceutical sanctions, saying, "Sanctions target ordinary people and are considered a terrorist act."

Stressing Iran’s inviolable commitment in combating terrorism, Takht-Ravanchi said the only way to fight terrorism is to fight its roots, including occupation and military intervention in other countries.  “Regardless of whether unilateral sanctions affect countries' ability to fight terrorism, these sanctions target ordinary people and are aimed at creating chaos and disorder in countries and pitting people against governments, it is in itself considered a terrorist act," the Iranian envoy said.

Takht-Ravanchi underlined that the lack of a comprehensive global convention on counterterrorism and the lack of a global consensus on a single definition for terrorism constitute a pretext for some countries to abuse the application of double standards in the fight against terrorism.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the deal had lifted.  He also placed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign.

Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories, and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.

Now, the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden says it wants to compensate for Trump’s mistake and rejoin the deal, but it is showing an overriding propensity for maintaining some of the sanctions as a tool of pressure.

Tehran insists that all sanctions should first be removed in a verifiable manner before the Islamic Republic reverses its remedial measures.