US is waging sanctions war, economic terrorism against Iran: Writer

The United States has imposed new sanctions against 20 companies, officials and individuals in Iran and Iraq, despite growing global pressure on the US to end sanctions on Iran as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday the sanctions freeze any US-held assets of those designated and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

Over the past week, calls have been growing on the international stage for the US to lift the illegal sanctions, which have hampered Tehran’s access to lifesaving medical supplies at the current critical time.

Turning a deaf ear to those calls, the US has instead claimed readiness to aid Iranians, with President Donald Trump saying “all they (Iranians) have to do is ask.”

Iran has roundly denounced the claims as hypocritical, saying if the US genuinely sought to help it out, it should lift its sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

US imposes new sanctions on Iranian and Iraqi individuals, companiesThe United States has imposed new sanctions against 20 companies, officials and individuals in Iran and Iraq.

“Well, COVID-19 spreads globally, including in the US and including in Iran, with thousands of cases and numbers growing every day. The Trump regime continues waging sanctions war, economic terrorism, medical terrorism on countries like Iran at a time when mutual cooperation among world nations is needed,” Lendman told Press TV in a phone interview on Saturday.

“But that’s not the way the US operates. It wants it wants to pile on maximum pain on Iran. Why? Because Iran is sovereign, it’s independent. It’s Israel’s main regional rival, not because of any threat Iran poses, it’s just (because) Israel wants to be the regional hegemon in a subordinate position to the US, which wants to be the main regional hegemon, along with it wanting to be the world hegemon,” he stated.

“That’s what sanctions war is all about. It continues. It’s not going to end no matter how serious the COVID-19 crisis might get. The US will continue finding new ways to impose sanctions on Iran. And the aim is to crush Iran’s economy, prevent from treating its people, mainly to immiserate the Iranian people, 80 million people the US wants to immiserate. It’s nothing to do with any threat posed by Iran against the US or any other countries,” he said.

“This is the way America operates. It’s an imperial power, wanting to enforce its rule on a global basis, wants all sovereign independent countries eliminated, wants them replaced with pro-Western puppet regimes that the US controls. That’s what this is all about,” the analyst said.

“It doesn’t matter the rule of law is violated, continues to be violated. The world community is complicit by not doing anything to stop what’s going on,” he added.

“Any country that goes along with US sanctions that are illegal Iran or any other country is complicit with what he was doing, because they’re supporting a criminal act, making him complicit in the crime,” he pointed out.

“Now is the time for all world nations to come together to combat COVID-19 which is a contagious disease, highly contagious, needs to be contained, so it could be overcome, and things are back to normal again, which will not happen until the disease is contained, and people are treated and everything is okay again. But the US always wants to sit the opposite to the desk,” Lendman concluded.