With Iran celebrating international sanctions lifted on its entirely peaceful nuclear program, the US Treasury imposed new ones unilaterally and illegally – again solely for political reasons.
A Treasury press release said Iran’s ballistic missile program was targeted, unrelated to its nuclear activities.
Eleven domestic and foreign entities as well as individuals are targeted. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin lied, claiming “Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions.”
We have consistently made clear that the United States will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – including those related to Iran’s support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program.
It bears repeating. Longstanding US sanctions imposed on Iran were and continue to be solely for political reasons, no others. Any without Security Council authorization are illegal.
Accusations against the Islamic Republic are fabricated. Its ballistic missile and other military activities are entirely legal – solely for national security and self-defense, never for waging war, polar opposite America’s sordid history of raping and destroying one country after another.
Newly imposed sanctions on Iran less than 24 hours after lifting international ones shows implacable US anti-Iranian hostility. What further shoe will drop next – what other outrage against the region’s leading force for peace and stability?
Washington should sanction itself. No country operates more ruthlessly, disdainful of rule of law principles, indifferent to human suffering.
Nowhere else is responsible change more urgently needed, the only way to save humanity from the scourge of endless wars, possible WW III with nuclear weapons, risking mass annihilation.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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