Russia: Unilateral sanctions do nothing but bring suffering to nations

Russia’s representative to the Vienna-based international organizations has sharply criticized the United States and its Western allies for imposing sets of unilateral sanctions against world states, saying such restrictions have only led to the sufferings of people across the globe, including the Iranian nation.

“Have unilateral sanctions ever achieved their declared goals? Never. Just recollect specific cases — Iraq, Iran, Syria, Venezuela etc,” Mikhail Ulyanov,wrote in a post published on his Twitter page on Tuesday.

“Such sanctions always spoil international climate and on many occasions result in humanitarian sufferings. Nothing else,” Ulyanov added.

A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Chinese mass media that Moscow supports the idea of forming a wide coalition of countries that stand against unilateral sanctions.

Lavrov said any initiative geared against the illegitimate use of sanctions as a pressure tool “deserves all possible support.”

“Venezuela came out with an initiative at the United Nations to establish a coalition against unilateral measures of compulsion,” the Russian foreign minister said. “Such initiatives should be encouraged. We must form a maximally wide coalition of countries that would combat this illegal practice.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart on Monday said the international community believes that the United States should reflect on the damage it has done to global peace and development in recent years, halt unilateral bullying, stop meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs, and stop forming small circles to seek bloc confrontation.

The two top diplomats also stated that Washington should unconditionally return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as soon as possible and end its “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic.

Earlier this month, a group of 16 countries, including Iran, Russia and China, were reported to be pushing for a coalition at the United Nations to counter the use or threat of force and unilateral sanctions by the West.

The “Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations,” — which also includes Syria, Palestine, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba — seeks to confront “unprecedented” attacks against multilateralism, the imposition of coercive measures, and withdrawal from global agreements as signs of growing unilateralism.

The ex-US administration under president Donald Trump was internationally criticized for its unilateral and isolationist approaches after it announced plans to quit the World Health Organization, pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN cultural agency UNESCO, the Paris climate accord and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has pledged to reverse Washington’s previous course but has yet to fully deliver.

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