An Iranian MP says U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic are moving to the stage of oil for food.
Mohammad Hassan Asafri, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said on Saturday January 5: “We need to ask Ban Ki-moon, who claims to be the head of the United Nations, does he not see that the U.S. sanctions are moving toward oil in exchange for food?”
He added: “How can one claim to be the Secretary General of the United Nations but remain silent in the face of a nation that is subjected to such pressure for wanting to stand on its own feet and stop U.S. excesses? We believe if the UN Secretary General does not have the audacity to initiate a resolution against U.S. hostilities, he should step down from his position.”
The U.S. and the European Union have intensified their sanctions on Iran in the past two years and, since last June, they have imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors, which have led to a significant fall in Iran’s oil revenues.
The EU and the U.S. claim the sanctions are aimed at pressuring Iran to accept their terms for nuclear activities. While the West suspects Iran may have nuclear weaponry ambitions, Iran insists that its atomic program is peaceful.
The Iranian MP also indicated that the U.S. sanctions are aimed at “influencing Iran’s presidential elections”, and several Islamic Republic officials have indicated that the Western sanctions are now aimed at “creating social discontent” to affect regime change in the country.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has also condemned the sanctions as “savage” and claimed that the promise to lift sanctions in exchange for the suspension of uranium enrichment is “a lie.”
