Russia and Spain Tuesday lambasted fresh sanctions on Iran by the US, which is bullying countries to stop buying the Iranian oil.
US President Donald Trump and his administration enacted Monday another tranche of sanctions against Iran targeting its oil and financial sector.
The move came following May fresh sanctions after President Trump tore apart the 2015 multinational nuclear accord signed by Iran and world powers and adopted by the UN Security Council.
The new sanctions prohibit countries from buying the Iranian oil but Washington has however given temporary waiver for eight countries namely Turkey, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy and Greece.
Washington has warned countries and companies they cannot trade with Iran and have access to the American market.
At a press conference in Madrid, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov laid into the US, arguing that the sanctions are illegitimate and breach the UN Security Council decision.
“Sanctions are absolutely illegitimate, they are being imposed in flagrant violation of the U.N. Security Council’s decision,” Lavrov said.
“And the forms in which these measures are being declared and implemented cannot cause anything but deep disappointment. It is not acceptable in our age to pursue a policy based on ultimatums and unilateral demands,” Lavrov added.
His host and colleague, Josep Borrell, backed him up noting that the Trump administration’s behavior, in reference to ultimatums, is of another era.
“This notion of ‘you’re either with me or against me’ is of another era,” Borrell said.
The Spanish top diplomat insisted that Madrid will not accept any kind of “position that resembles an ultimatum from anyone and also from the US”.
Like Russia and Spain, Turkey also said it rejects sanctions despite being granted a six-month waiver. President Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday said Ankara will not abide by the sanctions that are aimed, he claimed, at “unbalancing the world”.
“These are steps aimed at unbalancing the world. We don’t want to live in an imperialist world. These issues will be put on the table at the summit (this weekend) in Paris,” he told reporters.
“We will absolutely not abide by such sanctions. We buy 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas. We cannot freeze our people in the cold.”
