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Lavrov urges UN to resume discussion on humanitarian limits to sanctions

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who took the floor at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly Friday

UNITED NATIONS, September 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who took the floor at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly Friday, urged the UN Security Council to resume debates on the humanitarian limits to sanctions.

“UN Charter makes the introduction of sanctions a prerogative of the UN Security Council and decisions /on introducing them/ should be taken collegiately on the grounds of a realization that sanctions should not bring about an isolation of one or another state but rather should motivate it towards dialogue and responding to the questions the Security Council members may have.”

“There is a fundamental moment underlying any sanctions and it suggests they should be verified and shouldn’t bring suffering to the population of a target country,” Lavrov said.

“The Security Council discussed the problem of humanitarian limits to sanctions but those discussions came to a halt at a certain moment somehow,” he said. “We find it important to resume them.”

Russia constantly speaks in favor of an earliest possible lifting of the U.S. unilateral sanctions against Cuba, Lavrov said.

He believes that, generally speaking, the time has come for scrutinizing “the aftermaths of unilateral sanctions introduced by a state or a group of states in bypass of UN decisions and for an obvious purpose of promoting their own objectives.”

“We don’t have any doubts that sanctions of this kind, and especially the ones that have an exterritorial application, weaken the world community’s unity and undermine the efficiency of its efforts,” Lavrov said.

“The dragged-out commercial, economic and financial restrictions imposed by the U.S. on Cuba offer a graphic illustration of a deplorable impact of one-sided steps,” he said. “Like the absolute majority of countries, Russia speaks in favor of a soonest possible lifting of the blockade, which is a Cold War relic.”