Beijing opposes the unilateral coercive measures taken by the White House against other countries and urges Washington to stop wrong actions and return to the path of global solidarity and cooperation, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

Iran Press/Asia: Hua Chunying said at a press briefing in Beijing on Friday, the unilateral coercive measures taken by the US would directly harm the lives and health of the people of related countries.

The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions on 18 Iranian banks, redoubling its so-called maximum pressure campaign.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Wednesday slammed the latest move from Washington.

"Amid Covid19 pandemic, US regime wants to blow up our remaining channels to pay for food and medicine. Iranians WILL survive this latest of cruelties," Zarif tweeted.

"The United States ignores the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and norms of international law, willfully taking unilateral coercive measures such as economic blockade and financial sanctions against other countries, which have severely undermined the international political and economic order and global governance system, seriously jeopardized the sanctioned countries' capacity to develop the economy and improve people's livelihood, making a negative impact that cannot be ignored on the basic human rights of many innocent people including women, children, elderly and disabled. In the context that the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading globally, the US unilateral coercive measures of restricting the transport and supply of anti-epidemic goods will make it hard for the sanctioned countries to conduct timely epidemic prevention and control work and continue with post-epidemic recovery, directly endangering the lives of people in related countries, which is detrimental to people's rights, especially the vulnerable groups," she said.

"Both the UN secretary-general and high commissioner for human rights called for alleviation and abolition of unilateral coercive measures. At the general debate of the 75th UN General Assembly, leaders of many countries also called for removing the unilateral coercive measures. The Chinese representative made a joint speech on behalf of 26 countries, in which he once again called for the immediate and complete abolition of unilateral coercive measures so as to ensure that the international community could comprehensively, effectively, and efficiently deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. China urges the United States to face up the voice of the international community, immediately stop the wrong actions and return to the track of global solidarity and international cooperation as soon as possible," Hua said.

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