Tehran, June 12: The new UNSC sanctions target at least three entities managed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
With the UN Security Council approving sanctions that target Iran’s shipping industry, a senior Iranian lawmaker says the country will retaliate likewise.
Speaking to Mehr news agency on Saturday, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Hossein Ebrahimi said, “Even if one Iranian ship is stopped for security-check, we will act likewise and thoroughly inspect any [Western] ship passing through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Clearly their ships need to be inspected more than ours,” he said, adding that Iran carries out most of its military maneuvers in its strategic southern waters.
Ebrahimi was referring to the Wednesday passage of a fourth round of sanctions resolution against Tehran, which zeroes in on the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines among the long list of entities and individuals, alleged to have links with the country’s nuclear activities and missile defense program.
The lawmaker noted that the fresh sanctions approved by 12 member states of the UN Security Council (UNSC) were not nearly as significant as Western powers hoped them to be.
“The newly-adopted resolution is much the same as the previous ones and has nothing new to offer,” the Iranian parliament member explained.
Authorities in Iran have brushed aside the new UNSC resolution, saying that history has proven that sanctions designed to change the country’s stance on its nuclear program would eventually prove inefficient.
“Sanctions have turned into a useless tool and have certainly lost their efficacy,” ISNA quoted Iran’s Minister of Commerce, Mehdi Ghazanfari, as saying on Friday.
—Agencies