Sustainable development impossible without peace, respect for international law: Araghchi

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says sustainable development cannot be achieved without peace and respect for international law, stressing the need to place development at the center of international cooperation.

Addressing a high-level meeting of the Global Development Initiative on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, Araghchi said the need to put development at the heart of international cooperation has never been more urgent.

“Developing countries continue to face persistent poverty and hunger, widening inequalities, rising debt burdens, gaps in financing and technology, and growing environmental challenges,” he said.

“These pressures have been further intensified by conflicts, protectionist policies, unilateral coercive measures, acts of aggression and the use of force, undermining development prospects and reversing hard-won development gains,” the Iranian foreign minister added.

Araghchi also noted that development cannot thrive in an environment shaped by war, coercion, and unilateralism.

“Developing countries need financial resources, technology, knowledge and cooperation, not more barriers,” he said.

He also censured the continued use of unilateral coercive measures as a tool of political pressure against developing countries.

“Iran has faced such measures for decades, and they have intensified over recent years and months,” he said, adding that US sanctions restricting trade, financial resources, medicine, technology, education and scientific cooperation directly affect the daily lives of the Iranian people.

“From our perspective, the devastating impact of these measures on ordinary people constitutes economic terrorism,” Araghchi said. “The United Nations must stand against such coercive measures and call for their complete and unconditional lifting.”

Araghchi also condemned the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against Iran as “a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter.”

He said the attacks have killed thousands, including women and children, and destroyed civilian and vital infrastructure, causing severe economic, social and environmental damage.

Referring to several sites hit during the attacks, including a primary school in the southern city of Minab where 168 students were killed, Iran’s Pasteur Institute and a sports complex in Lamerd, in Fars province, Araghchi said places representing “education, health and hope” have been turned into scenes of “blood, death and destruction.”

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Araghchi also welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision in launching the Global Development Initiative in 2021 and placing development at the center of international cooperation.

Over the past five years, he said, the initiative has promoted cooperation in poverty reduction, food security, development financing, green development, industrialization and the digital economy.

“Iran attaches particular importance to the role of the Global Development Initiative in strengthening South-South cooperation,” Araghchi said.

He added that the initiative could mobilize the knowledge, technology and capacities of the Global South, turn solidarity in the pursuit of development into concrete action and strengthen the voice of developing countries in global development governance.

Araghchi stressed that Iran remains committed to the UN Charter, sovereign equality, the right to development and genuine multilateralism.

“Development must never be held hostage to coercion, discrimination, political agendas or unilateralism,” he said.

The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran is ready to work with China, members of the Global Development Initiative and other partners to strengthen the development pillar of the United Nations, expand South-South cooperation, consolidate genuine multilateralism and advance the goals and principles of the UN Charter.

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