Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the United States and its Western allies would be better off changing their “failed” sanctions policy toward Iran.
“It is surprising that Western countries still do not know that sanctions are a failed tool and that they cannot impose their own agenda on Iran through sanctions,” Araqchi said on Saturday, Press TV reports.
“Sanctions are a tool of pressure and confrontation not a tool of cooperation, and this tool has failed because it could not be effective in practice,” Araqchi said.
He reiterated the Islamic Republic’s determination to continue its path, emphasizing that Tehran has never abandoned “constructive” negotiations to reach a common understanding on disputed issues.
“However, the negotiations must be based on mutual respect, and not threats and pressure,” he pointed out.
Araqchi expressed his surprise that the West is still hopeful about the failed policy of imposing sanctions on others and is acting based on such a defeated experience.
His comments came after the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany - known as the E3 – denounced what they alleged to be “Iran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles.”
They also moved to “cancel bilateral air services agreements with Iran” and announced that they would work towards imposing sanctions against Iran Air, the country’s national airliner, under the pretext of allegedly interfering in the conflict in Ukraine.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US Treasury and the State Department imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and nine entities based in Iran and Russia.
bd-pratidin/GR
