Iran's UN envoy slams continued U.S. sanctions as 'crime against humanity'

Iranian deputy permanent representative to the United Nations has condemned the continued U.S. sanctions on Iran as "crime against humanity," official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.

Zahra Ershadi said the U.S. unilateral sanctions against the Iranian people, particularly on medicines and humanitarian items, "should not go unpunished."

"The illegal sanctions have hampered access of vulnerable segments of the society in affected countries, including my country," to basic medical items and necessities, Ershadi said on Monday in his address to the UN Commission for Social Development.

Restrictions on access to Iran's foreign exchange resources have hampered its medical and health supplies, which directly impacted the lives of Iran's most vulnerable citizens, including women, children and patients, she noted.

"In fact, the pandemic has made the negative humanitarian effects of unilateral sanctions far more obvious and more disastrous," the Iranian representative stressed.

The United States re-imposed sweeping sanctions against Iran in 2018 after abandoning the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.