SOCHI, November 1. /TASS/. Washington’s sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), just like other unilateral moves, are illegitimate and contravene international law, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.
"Our approach to unilateral sanctions in general is universal. We regard such methods as illegitimate and running counter to the norms of international law and the basic principles of interstate communication," the diplomat stressed. "The Americans have turned sanctions into the key tool of their foreign policy."
"Today sanctions are a tool Washington resorts to in the first place. That means, by and large, the substantial degradation of the basic principles of foreign policy," Ryabkov noted.
"If sanctions have an extraterritorial component, that is, attempts to apply intimidation methods to companies, organizations and individuals in third countries, it is clear that in this case sanctions turn into an element of creating a climate of uncertainty and crisis," the senior diplomat went on to say. "Perhaps, that’s the objective. The US has always been ‘famous’ for its ability to pursue the policy of controlled crises and teeter on the brink of crises escalating into a hot phase."
The US earlier added the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite branch of Iran’s armed forces, to the list of organizations "supporting terrorism."