Dr. Gholamreza Khaji, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, stated that the law of development and international cooperation is an important area in international law, noting: Unfortunately, developed countries do not pay much attention to it, while a resolution on this issue has been issued by the UN General Assembly and we are witness to the cooperation between developed and developing countries around the world, as happened in East Asia, without the presence of Europe and the United States.

US Sanctions Violate Int’l Law of Development

He added: The Law of development, which is one of the indicators of international law and one of the almost voluminous trends in general international law, has obliged countries to cooperate with each other. This “obligation” is a word that has a legal meaning and therefore, countries are not free to cooperate with each other, but are obliged to cooperate with one another.

Recalling that the UN General Assembly resolution is one of the basic sources in international law that countries are obliged to act upon, Khaji pointed to imposition of US sanctions against Iran in various fields, including development, food and medicine, and said: Specifically, the United States is a country which, in the international law of development, not only does not cooperate but also acts against this resolution: A resolution that explicitly obliges countries to cooperate in the field of development.

The professor of international law, stating that in this regard development should not be merely economic development but cultural development and even cooperation in health issues, including the campaign against the coronavirus, said: Since the outbreak of the COVID 91 the United States has behaved almost contrary to what it was expected. There has been no move by the Americans to cooperate in line with the campaign against coronavirus, not even at the level of a statement. Incidentally, within the same atmosphere, they added to the previous sanctions.

Widespread Dimensions of Violation of Int’l Law and Human Rights by the US

Referring to the widespread and anti-human rights dimensions of the US sanctions against Iran, he said: Under these circumstances, not only goods but also devices for the production of goods cannot be purchased. In addition, many problems have been created with currency restrictions, even in the purchase of medicine; that is to say, the Americans practically have ignored both international law of development and international humanitarian law.

Khaji described dimensions of violation of international law and human rights by the Americans as widespread, adding: International economic law emphasizes that countries must work together economically and be economically interdependent; that is to say, according to the international law of development, if a commodity is scarce at the international level and a country is suffering from it, other countries must immediately supply it and put it at its disposal, and refers to it as the “international economic integrity”.

Emphasizing that the US had clearly violated the law by imposing a series of sanctions, he said: US sanctions have no legal basis and Trump has used all his power to impose sanctions on Iran. All American sanctions have a phrase in their beginning; that is to say, sanctions be imposed with regard to the issue of “human rights” and “suspicious nuclear activities”– Two phrases that have no legal meaning and no legal weight.

Need to Elucidate Anti-Human Rights Dimensions of the US Sanctions

The international law professor said that the dimensions of US human rights misuses in imposing the illegal sanctions should be further elucidated to the people of the world, adding: It would be very useful if we could tell the world at the international level that those sanctions are rooted in stubbornness, selfishness and illegal bases. He noted that the United States has used this tool so much since World War II that many countries think sanctions are a law!

Khaji continued: Even companies are so afraid of US sanctions that they do not dare to enter into business with Iran and think that sanction is a strong law. Once Total of France, due to its strong authority and solidarity in the European Union at that juncture, broke the US embargo and signed a contract and nothing happened but they later aligned with the Americans.

Ignoring Legal Dimensions and Principles in Texts of Sanctions

Explaining the legal dimensions of composing US sanctions and its literature, the professor said: US sanctions against Iran are several thousand pages; that is to say, if we intend to turn them into pamphlets or books, it is about two or three thousand pages. Then people of the world think it is an important and substantial matter. For example, when we show the texts of these sanctions to the students, they think it is a complicated and peculiar issue, but when they start reading them they are surprised at the extent of negligence of its legal basis and principles.

He said: For us lawyers who want to talk about US sanctions in the classroom, it is ridiculous that these allegations are baseless and illegal. If we can explain the same subject even at domestic level, it will have many effects.