Threats of Washington to impose sanctions for cooperation with Tehran will not force other countries to compromise international law in favor of anti-Iranian political attitudes, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told a briefing.
"We are convinced that the world will not allow the US to replace international law with conjunctural political attitudes. It is clear to everybody that behind the unwinding of the Iranian threat are the vested interests of the American military-industrial complex, which is behind the scenes supplying the Persian Gulf countries with its weapons," she said.
Zakharova pointed out that the US had recently failed to conduct its initiatives against Iran twice in the UN Security Council, and therefore Washington is trying to get back at it by threatening unilateral sanctions for cooperation with Tehran. "'The USA continues to persist in its absolutely erroneous anti-Iranian course and promises to punish severely those countries that disagree with the American policy of maximum pressure on Tehran that discredited itself," she noted.
According to the diplomat, the US is not going to limit itself to the military-political sphere and aims to stop international cooperation with the Islamic republic in general. At that, Washington in its actions goes against the international law and UN Security Council decisions. "Such behavior is unworthy of a great power," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"If the Americans want to fence themselves off from the rest of the world with a curtain of sanctions, hiding behind it their incomprehensiveness, prejudices and complexes, it is, of course, their business. Other countries, including Russia, continue to pursue independent foreign policy, choosing their partners on their own, cooperating with them in areas of mutual interest and benefit, this also applies to Iran," Zakharova emphasized.
She noted that the Russian-Iranian partnership had been developing for many decades, was multi-disciplinary in nature and based on the principles of trust, good neighborliness and mutual respect. "As for military-technical cooperation, Russia's policy in this area fully complies with the norms of international law, is carried out in full compliance with the Russian legislation, which is one of the strictest, by the way, unlike the United States, and does not depend on political whims and certain affiliations," she concluded.
The US Anti-Iranian Campaign
On October 18, the embargo on supplies to Iran as well as the export of conventional arms from this country expired. During the last several months the USA has been opposing the lifting of the arms embargo against Iran. However, Russia, China and European countries did not support Washington's initiatives in the UN Security Council to prolong the embargo against Tehran.
On October 18, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stated that the United States was ready to unilaterally introduce sanctions against individuals and legal entities related to the supply of arms to Iran or purchase of arms from it.
Iranian nuclear deal was concluded by permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany with Iran in 2015 in order to overcome the crisis around its nuclear developments. After withdrawal from the agreement in 2018, the US began a campaign to exert maximum pressure on Iran, actually aimed at its economic strangulation.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Alexander Shcherbak / TASS
Based on materials from TASS