Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has condemned a fresh round of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying the “futile” and “empty” bans only reveal the desperation of Washington vis-à-vis Iran.
Abbas Mousavi made the remarks on Monday in reaction to the US Treasury’s recent sanctions on nine people close to the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution including his chief of staff and the country’s Judiciary Chief.
“The US regime’s addiction to unilateral sanctions has put the regime’s statesmen in a totally passive situation, in which they announce some empty sanctions every now and then in order to relieve themselves and escape the frustration caused by their failure against the Iranian nation’s iron will,” he said.
“Such measures only reveal the regime’s desperation and inability to use diplomatic or logical solutions,” the spokesman noted.
The US Treasury on Monday announced the new sanctions against the financial assets of what the US called the “inner circle of both military and foreign affair advisors” to the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, a senior administration official said in a call with reporters to discuss the sanctions.
The US sanctions block any US-controlled property or interests held by those targeted, and prohibit anyone or any entities in the United States from dealing with those sanctioned.
Mousavi also slammed a statement by the White House released on November 4, 2019, on the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, and described it as a “flagrant” move to distort the realities.
In the statement, Washington claimed that Tehran targets “innocent civilians for use as pawns” in its foreign relations, and vowed that it will continue to impose its “crippling” sanctions until Iran changes this and what it called its other “hostile” behaviors.
“Through propaganda and brouhaha and using an impolite and undiplomatic language, the White House always tries to distort the facts and the history by keeping open an already-closed case, which was settled 40 years ago through the Algiers agreements between the two states of Iran and the US,” he noted.
“The US government cannot hide the crimes it committed against the Iranian nation from those in the 1953 coup and later through robbery, looting, murder, and economic terrorism, and replace the positions of the executioner and the victim,” Mousavi added.
He said what the US administration has attributed to Iran is what the Iranian nation and other nations in the world demand from the US government.
“It is the US administration that must stop [supporting] terrorism, especially its support for the state-sponsored terrorism of the Zionist regime which loots other countries’ resources, and also its piracy, economic terrorism, and other abnormal and unusual behaviors,” he added, urging the US to choose a wise, civilized, and lawful path.
On Monday, Iranians held rallies in various cities to mark the 40th occupation anniversary of the former US embassy in Tehran, which gained notoriety as the “Den of Espionage” after angry students occupied the compound and recovered thousands of documents proving Washington’s espionage activities there.
In the capital Tehran, students joined a large gathering staged outside the former embassy building from the early hours of morning to honor what is regarded as a milestone in Iran’s ongoing fight against the world arrogance.
The demonstrators expressed their opposition to the global hegemony by chanting slogans against the United States and ‘Israel’ and set their flags on fire in condemnation of their policies of creating havoc in other countries.
The embassy was taken over by hundreds of students on November 4, 1979, nearly nine months after the Islamic Revolution dethroned the US-backed Pahlavi regime.
The students detained 66 embassy staff who were in the process of destroying classified documents that would have incriminated them in plotting to topple the nascent Islamic Republic.
Iran released women, African Americans and as well as a man who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis days later but kept the remaining 52 detainees for 444 days.
Source: Press TV
