Tabnak – With the United States officially re-imposing sanctions against Iran, many countries step up their criticisms of Washington’s unilateral approach in the international arena. Russia, Germany and Turkey are among the countries already stated that they won’t abide by the new US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
In Moscow's first official reaction since the restoration of Washington's bans on Tehran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the US sanctions are "not legitimate." Russia, itself a target of separate US sanctions, expected there would be ways to pursue economic cooperation with Iran despite the US sanctions, he added.
Speaking in Madrid after a meeting with his Spanish counterpart Josep Borrell, the Russian foreign minister said Washington had used "unacceptable methods" to exert pressure on operators of the Belgian-based SWIFT global payment network to cut off Iranian banks. Lavrov emphasized that Russia and its European partners were looking for ways to maintain economic ties with Iran.
Meanwhile, Russian news agencies on Tuesday quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Russia's President Vladimir Putin discussed sanctions imposed by the US on Iran with his security council. Peskov said that sanctions were "illegitimate."
In a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation "resolutely" condemned a recent "destructive" move by the United States to impose a new wave of sanctions on Iran, urging Washington to immediately review its policy of sanctions pressure against Tehran.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also on Tuesday criticized the re-imposition of the US sanctions on Iran, saying his country considered it to be a "wrong" move.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland in Berlin, Maas added that precautions were being taken "to ensure that business can continue with Iran."
He warned that economic destabilization of Iran would endanger European countries' security interests.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was another world figure who slammed the US for rolling back sanctions on Iran, saying Ankara will not abide by the restrictive measures against its neighbor.
In comments to reporters on Tuesday, Erdogan said his country finds the American sanctions against Iran wrong, adding that the bans are merely aimed at unbalancing the world.
Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Washington against anti-Iran sanctions and said its attempt to isolate Tehran is “dangerous” and unwise.
“While we were asking (for) an exemption from the United States, we have also been very frank with them that cornering Iran is not wise. Isolating Iran is dangerous,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a press conference in Japan on Tuesday.
The administration of US President Donald Trump on Monday re-imposed a second set of sanctions with an aim to isolate Iran's banking and shipping sectors and slash its oil exports. Those bans had been lifted under a 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Iran, which the US exited in May.
