World parliament must focus on ways to end unjust sanctions: Qalibaf

Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker says after overcoming the current pandemic of the deadly new coronavirus, parliaments across the world must focus on preventing adoption of such illegal politics as unjust sanctions, which hamper development of economic ties among various states.

According to Press TV, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf made the remarks while addressing a virtual meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly on Thursday.

“The main basis for passing laws by parliaments in a post-coronavirus era should be formulation of legal frameworks, finding solutions to facilitate economic relations [among countries], supporting bilateral and multilateral agreements ... and preventing any form of restriction and illegal policies such as unjust sanctions, which prevent development of economic relations,” Iran’s parliament speaker said.

Qalibaf noted that the way would be paved for rapid adoption of such measures “only when our policies and collective approaches are aimed at the right direction.”

Iran’s top parliamentarian noted that economic issues were a major victim of the pandemic, noting that countries need to revise their trade and commerce strategies in order to pave the way for the reconstruction of global economies.

“Despite the pandemic of this dangerous virus and in spite of all requests and pressures from international organizations for the removal or reduction of US economic sanctions against countries, including Iran, the United States is still pursuing its maximum pressure policy against other nations amid coronavirus crisis,” Qalibaf said.

He added that US sanctions have created problems for collective measures taken to fight the pandemic, stressing that this inhumane measure by the United States must be condemned in the strongest term in all discussions about the coronavirus pandemic.

Last Thursday, Iran’s envoy to the United Nations called for an end to unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States on various countries as the restrictive measures hamper their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Noting that the lifting of sanctions is necessary to counter the spread of the flu-like pathogen in the targeted countries as well as across the world, Majid Takht-Ravanchi added, “These unilateral sanctions effectively target patients the most, and show how immoral, inhumane, and illegitimate these sanctions are.”

SS