Iran's ambassador: Sanctioning airline companies a clear violation of UN Charter

ParsToday – Iran's ambassador and chargé d'affaires to the United Nations, in a letter to the UN Security Council, has said that the US sanctions against 27 airline companies are an example of economic terrorism, collective punishment, and a crime against humanity, and a clear violation of the UN Charter.

According to a ParsToday report citing the Sada and Sima news agency, Gholamhossein Darzi, Iran's ambassador and deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran's mission to the United Nations, in a letter to Antonio Guterres, the organization's Secretary-General, and the current president of the Security Council, wrote: Sanctioning airline companies disrupts access to aircraft spare parts, equipment, maintenance, repair, inspection, and technical services that are essential for the safe operation of civilian aircraft, and thereby exposes passengers and aviation industry personnel to avoidable dangers, while at the same time restricting the movement of millions of civilians.

He added: These measures also constitute a clear disregard for the International Court of Justice's order dated October 3, 2018. The Court explicitly considered the potential effects of the United States' measures on civilian aviation safety and the lives of its users, and obligated the United States to remove existing obstacles to the free export of goods and services essential for civilian aviation safety to Iran.

Darzi stated: The systematic use of economic and financial measures with the aim of deliberately and extensively imposing hardship and severe deprivation on Iran's civilian population, with the motive of applying political pressure, constitutes an example of economic terrorism, collective punishment, and a crime against humanity, and is considered a clear violation of the UN Charter and the fundamental rules of international law, including international human rights law and obligations related to the protection of civilians.

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations asked the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council to call on all member states to refrain from recognizing or implementing the United States' unilateral coercive measures that violate international law and the UN Charter; especially measures that cause or are reasonably foreseeable to cause extensive humanitarian damage to civilian populations.

He also asked the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council to demand that the United States immediately stop and end all of its unilateral and illegal coercive measures, as well as its ongoing aggressive actions against Iran that target innocent civilians, and to fully and without any exception comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.