US Sanctions against Iran ‘Unlawful’: Russian Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Iran is not the cause of instability in the Persian Gulf and that sanctions against the country are “unlawful.”
“As regards restrictions on Iranian exports, we support Iran and we believe that the sanctions are unlawful; they have not been approved by the UN,” Novak told CNBC on Tuesday.
The energy minister added that he did not think Iran should be considered as the cause of the unstable situation in the region.
“These steps seriously destabilize the situation, not only in Iran, upon whom the sanctions have been imposed, but, as we can all see, in the entire region around the Persian Gulf,” he said.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the 2015 nuclear deal.
The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord imposed fresh sanctions against the country.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under the JCPOA in May 2019.
Iran has also set a 60-day deadline for the remaining JCPOA parties to fulfill their undertakings.
