Iran Condemns New US Sanctions as Violation of International Law and Sovereign Rights

TEHRAN, Aug 22 — Iran has strongly condemned new economic sanctions imposed by the United States, asserting that Washington’s reliance on secondary sanctions violates international law and directly infringes upon the sovereignty of independent nations.

Reacting to Washington’s latest measures, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated that the expanded sanctions represent an unlawful escalation reaching far beyond a bilateral economic dispute.

“The United States’ declaration of new economic sanctions on Iran is far more than continued unlawful ‘economic warfare’ against a single country,” Baghaei said in a statement published on social media platform X. “It is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations.”

Baghaei argued that no nation possesses the legal authority to coerce foreign banks, commercial enterprises, or aviation hubs operating under the jurisdiction of sovereign third countries into severing legitimate trade ties.

He emphasized that secondary sanctions have “no foundation in international law,” contending that they directly breach the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in Article 2(1) of the UN Charter, as well as the customary prohibition against foreign intervention affirmed by the International Court of Justice in the landmark Nicaragua case.

Linking the economic measures to the ongoing U.S. naval blockade, Baghaei cautioned that combining financial isolation with maritime restrictions reduces the sovereignty of other states to something “provisional, conditional, and revocable at the whim of another power.” He warned that such extraterritorial overreach risks eroding the core foundations of the UN-based international order and returning global diplomacy to “full-scale classic colonialism.”

The Iranian statement follows an announcement on Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared his intention to execute “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.” Trump characterized his intensified maximum-pressure campaign against Tehran as “Economic Warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

Branding the initiative an “Economic D-Day,” Trump urged international allies to join Washington in cutting off financial channels supporting Tehran, cautioning that foreign entities, financial institutions, businesses, or airports extending an economic “lifeline” to Iran will face severe financial consequences.

–NMT