Iranian Foreign Minister has said US sanctions against his country are not punitive measures but they are an act of terrorism.

Iran Press/Iran news: Delivering a speech in Tehran on Wednesday on the occasion of Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day, Zarif chided the United States for its lawless behavior and warmongering policies.

Addressing the audience Zarif said: "We never buy security and we never sell a security because we receive our security and our legitimacy from the people. Our advancement is because of the people."   

Zarif said the Donald Trump administration is afraid of Iran's strong logic and power of persuasion, and thus it doesn't want Iranian officials to engage in a dialogue with the US public, Iran Press reported.

He added: "That is why they have sanctioned me!  They want to muzzle us, they don't want us to have a dialogue with the American public. Americans are afraid of our logic, our point-of-view, and our reasoning. America is not worried about Iran's nuclear program."

"According to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution's Fatwa or religious edict, it is forbidden to manufacture, develop or use nuclear weapons, and we have no intention of developing nuclear weapons. But we have every intention of extending and spreading our dialogue in the world, a dialogue of peace and mutual respect. It is our dialogue with the international community, our reasoning and our point-of-view which frightens them," Zarif noted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif referred to the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War. He again chided the United States for using nuclear weapons against a city and a civilian population, as in the city of Hiroshima, killing countless civilians.

He said the United States used nuclear weapons against a civilian population, not against Japanese soldiers at the war front. He criticized the US way of thinking which was to end the second world war at the expense of killing over a hundred thousand Japanese civilians, including women and children. He asked poignantly: "Didn't the civilians in the city of Hiroshima have human rights and human dignity in August 1945? Did you respect their human rights?" 

Zarif reiterated: "Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction. They are for killing civilians on a large scale. The mindset which justifies the killing of over a hundred thousand people must be condemned."

In further remarks, Zarif said one of the greatest [legal] victories of Iran in recent years has been the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, the Netherland. The ICJ ruled after US withdrawal from the JCPOA, that it was illegal for the United States to slap sanctions on essential items such as food, medicines, and spare parts for commercial aircraft. The International Court of Justice ruled it was illegal for the United States to sanction the sale of aircraft spare parts to Iran. 101/211

Read More:

Iranian President calls US sanctions crime against humanity