IRNA – Iran's permanent envoy to UN organizations in Vienna in a letter cautioned on the adverse effects of the US sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and called on the international community to confront the illegal moves.

In the letter, Kazem Gharibabadi argued that the main reason of the sanctions is Zarif's high capabilities in representing Iranian people at the international level.

He said that imposing sanctions against a foreign minister of a state-member of the United Nations was the flagrant violation of principle norms of the international law, and damage on diplomacy and multilateralism.

Arguing that the sanctions against Foreign Minister Zarif are a grave backward move for diplomacy and a fatal blow to diplomatic procedures, Gharibabadi said that the US measure endangered states' interactions.

The Iranian diplomat noted that restriction of movement imposed on Zarif by Washington during his recent visit to New York was a gross violation of Article 105 of the UN Charter, Convention 1945 and norms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.

The Resolution 73/212 of the General Assembly calls on the host country to avoid any restriction on diplomats that are resulted from bilateral relations, he said.

Gharibabadi noted that the sanctions against Iran's foreign minister are an offense against diplomats across the world, adding that the US imposed the restrictions on Zarif at a time that the world is in urgent need of diplomacy.

The Iranian representative called on the international community to strongly condemn the illegal move by the US. He said that affiliated organizations of the UN and the state-members should get united in defense of the basic principles of the international law and against the prejudice.