In a letter penned to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the rotating President of the UN Security Council, Gholamhossein Darzi stated that sanctions on airlines disrupt access to aircraft spare parts, equipment, and services—including maintenance, repair, inspection, and technical support—essential for the safe operation of civil aircraft; this exposes passengers and aviation industry personnel to avoidable risks while simultaneously restricting the movement of millions of civilians.
The senior Iranian diplomat added, “These actions also constitute a blatant disregard for the International Court of Justice’s order dated October 3, 2018. The Court explicitly addressed the potential impact of U.S. measures on the safety of civil aviation and the lives of those relying on it, and required the United States to remove impediments to the free export to Iran of goods and services essential for civil aviation safety.”
The systematic use of economic and financial measures—aimed at deliberately and extensively inflicting severe hardship and deprivation upon Iran’s civilian population to exert political pressure—constitutes economic terrorism, collective punishment, and a crime against humanity; furthermore, it represents a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and fundamental principles of international law, including international human rights law and obligations regarding the protection of civilians, the envoy emphasized.
The Iranian envoy called on the Secretary-General and the President of the UN Security Council to urge all Member States to refrain from recognizing or implementing unilateral coercive measures by the United States that violate international law and the UN Charter—particularly those measures that inflict, or can reasonably be foreseen to cause, widespread humanitarian harm to civilian populations.
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