Iran condemned the European Union and the United Kingdom for imposing a fresh round of sanctions against the West Asian nation on Tuesday, November 19. The EU and UK sanctions, imposed on Monday, target several Iranian individuals and companies. These include the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and Iran Air. The UK froze the assets of IRISL and Iran Air, claiming these entities were used to transfer ballistic missiles and other military supplies to Russia.
The EU and the UK have used the pretext of Iran supplying drones and ballistic missiles to Russia to impose additional sets of sanctions (in addition to those related to JCPOA) on Iran without providing any evidence for the same.
Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, denounced the claims made by the EU and the UK about his country supplying ballistic missiles to Russia, calling them “unfounded.”
Baghaei underlined that even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not believe in such claims made by the leadership in the Western countries.
Last month. Zelenskyy admitted that Iran has not supplied ballistic missiles to Russia as claimed by the EU, the UK and the US. However, the Ukrainian government had welcomed their earlier round of sanctions against Iran over the issue.
Baghaei claimed that using false pretext to justify completely “unjustifiable” sanctions against Iran violates their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aka the Iran nuclear deal.
In a statement issued by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iran claimed that the sanctions are contrary to international law and therefore illegitimate, and once again called for their immediate withdrawal.
EU members France and Germany, in addition to the UK, are the signatories of the JCPOA which was also signed by Iran, the US, Russia and China in 2016. In 2019. the US withdrew from the deal unilaterally and imposed sanctions against Iran in violation of the provisions of the deal.
Though the EU members and the UK have not yet withdrawn from the deal officially, they too have followed the US example and imposed sanctions on Iran using various pretexts, including Iran’s scaling down its own commitments under the deal.
The JCPOA was signed to restrict Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting all international sanctions imposed against the country since mid-2000. Iran claims it has the right to scale back its commitments under the deal as the US and its European allies have failed to fulfill their own commitments.
“Freedom of navigation and maritime trade are fundamental principles of international maritime law, and accordingly, the international responsibility of the European parties for violations of international law is evident,” Baghaei said as reported by IRNA.
Both Iran and Russia have denied claims of trade of ballistic missiles between them repeatedly made by the EU and other western countries. The West claims the Iranian supply of weapons to Russia threatens peace in the region. However, they have openly supplied billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Ukraine at the same time.
The EU members have provided over USD 129 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022. The UK has provided over USD 12 billion in military aid. At the same time the US congress has approved USD 175 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Earlier this week the US approved the use of long range missiles it has supplied to Ukraine for the purposes of attacks inside Russia, which Ukraine later used to strike Russia.