Iran, China: Unilateral U.S. sanctions illegal

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said in a twitter post on Monday that he and his Chinese counterpart Ma Zhaoxu stressed during a phone conversation that sanctions against Iranian individuals, entities and third parties should be removed, and that guarantees must be provided so that such illegal measures will not be repeated.

The Iranian and Chinese deputy foreign ministers emphasized the importance of the rule of law in international relations.

The phone conversation comes days after Bagheri Kani, who is Iran’s top negotiator, traveled to Brussels and Moscow, where he met with the European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Mora and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Bagheri and Mora agreed that talks between Iran and the P4+1 group in the Austrian capital Vienna will resume before the end of November on a possible return of the United States to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump withdrew America from the JCPOA and re-imposed unilateral sanctions against Iranians to force them to negotiate a new deal. Iran rejected this and rolled back some of its nuclear commitments in response. Trump’s successor Joe Biden says he wants to return to the deal, but has so far enforced Trump’s sanctions and failed to take concrete measures to build confidence.

Just days ago, in a move that was condemned by Iran, the US Treasury imposed new sanctions on real and legal Iranian individuals linked to the country’s unmanned aerial vehicle program.