Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter on Wednesday to attack Washington over a new round of sanctions that target two Iranian banks and several companies with alleged ties to Iran’s Basij militia, a volunteer force that is made up of government loyalists.
Mr Zarif argued the new sanctions violated a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that backed the US from interfering in humanitarian trade with Tehran.
The foreign minister said: “The Trump administration has an utter disregard for rule of law and human rights of an entire people.
“The US outlaw regime’s hostility toward Iranians is heightened by an addiction to sanctions.”
Mr Zarif claims one of the banks that is targeted by the sanctions is “key to food and medicine import.”
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He added the US was justifying their actions by an “alleged link of eight degrees of separation with another arbitrary target.”
He wrote: “All humans on the planet are connected by six degrees of separation. You do the math.”
He called the latest actions by Washington an “insult” to international order that was stemming from “blind vindictiveness” in another statement.
On Tuesday, the US announced the new sanctions against the largest tractor manufacturer in the Middle East, Iran Tractor Manufacturing, as well as the regions largest steel producer, Mobarakeh Steel Company.
In addition to those two companies, over 20 other corporations and banks who US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin accused of being complicit in the Basij militia’s “efforts to recruit, train, and indoctrinate child soldiers who are coerced into combat”.
Tensions between the US and Iran have continued to escalate ever since US President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and decided to reinstall heavy sanctions against Iran despite significant opposition from the UK, EU, China and Russia.
In early October, the ICJ told the US it had to remove sanctions that specifically targeted humanitarian trade, food, medicine and civil aviation according to the 1955 Treaty of Amity that both Tehran and Washington signed.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they would just end the treaty and accused Tehran of “abusing” the ICJ.
Many Iranian officials have used Twitter to lash out at US sanctions.
While the UK, EU, Russia and China have been attempting to keep economic ties with Iran, the sanctions have already affected the country’s economy, putting it into a recession despite the growth that had been expected by the International Monetary Fund earlier this year.