US unilateralism cannot harm Iran, China: Larijani

In Beijing, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said  America’s hostile unilateral policies, including the imposition of sanctions and trade tariffs on other countries, will fail to harm other nations, including Iran and China.

Addressing students and professors at Renmin University of China in Beijing on Tuesday, Larijani said that unbridled unilateralism is not acceptable to world nations, paticularly Iran and China, in the 21st century.

“The US has adopted a hostile approach toward other nations - in the form of various economic mechanisms such as imposing unilateral, illegal and extra-territorial sanctions or slapping tariffs on other countries’ exports - in an attempt to damage those nations. That includes the civilized Chinese and Iranian nations, but the policy will not succeed,” he added.

Both Iran and China have been the target of Washington’s stepped-up economic pressure tactics under President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – to which China is also a signatory – last May and unleashed and the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran.

China – along with other parties to the deal -- has repeatedly defended the nuclear deal and expressed its resolve to keep the accord in place.

Washington has also been engaged in economic tensions with Beijing over the past months, in what observers fear could turn into an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The tensions escalated last year when the Trump administration applied tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while Beijing retaliated with its own duties on $110 billion worth of US merchandise.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Larijani stressed that Iran expects the remaining parties to the Iran deal to fulfill their obligations under the nuclear agreement, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Although the parties to the JCPOA have turned down the illegitimate US request [to leave the deal] and tried to save it, we expect them to protect the agreement, honor multilateralism, completely meet their commitments and not to succumb to force,” he said.

The top Iranian parliamentarian also condemned the US for providing support to international terrorists and extremists in an attempt to topple independent governments and bring, instead, illegitimate regimes to power.

“Such US meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs constitutes a serious danger," he warned.

Larijnai further described Washington as the main supporter of terrorist groups, which have, for years, been sowing chaos in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

“Since the onset, the Islamic Republic has responsibly backed political solutions to the conflicts in those countries,” added the top Iranian parliamentarian.

Larijani further blasted the Israeli regime for its adventurism and attempts to fuel chaos in the Middle East with the aim of keeping Palestine under occupation.

On Wednesday, Larijani held talks with Lee Shoe Young, chairman of Iran-China parliamentary friendship group.

During the meeting, he said that friendly ties between the two states date back more than 2,000 years.

“No country can damage the Iran-China relations,” he added.

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