US sanctions that have harmed hundreds of thousands of people in low-income countries should be recognized as crimes against humanity, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
“It is time to recognize the inhumane sanctions imposed by the United States and its accomplices as crimes against humanity. Countries targeted by sanctions must coordinate their efforts to deliver a unified response,” Araghchi wrote on X.
He cited a study published in The Lancet, which found that the negative impact of US and European economic sanctions on health systems in low-income countries led to more than 560,000 premature deaths per year between 1971 and 2021—five times the annual death toll from armed conflicts over the same period.
The study analyzed sanctions episodes involving 152 countries. According to the researchers, US and EU sanctions tend to have harsher effects on ordinary civilians than UN sanctions, because Washington and Brussels view the deterioration of living conditions as a legitimate tool to pressure the political leadership of regimes they oppose.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: khamenei.ir/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on TASS materials