In a statement posted on X on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei highlighted the significance of December 4, which the United Nations General Assembly designated earlier this year as the International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures through resolution 79/293.

“The date coincides with the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development on 4 December 1986 (UNGA resolution 41/128),” Baghaei noted.

He stated unilateral coercive measures – primarily economic, financial, and banking sanctions imposed without UN Security Council approval – are systematically violating core human rights, including the rights to life, health, education, and development.

By deliberately targeting the lives and well-being of entire populations, these measures constitute crimes against humanity, the spokesman declared, adding that “the United States must be held accountable for committing such crimes through its illegal and inhuman sanctions against the peoples of developing countries, including Iran.”

The United States has maintained extensive illegal sanctions on Iran for decades, citing unfounded concerns over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program. 

The United States under President Donald Trump reinstated harsh sanctions on Iran after unilaterally walking out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, despite Iran’s full compliance with the terms of the agreement.

The sanctions have choked up the financial channels that could be used for providing Iran with essential medicine, material, or medical equipment.

Although Washington and its Western allies claim that humanitarian goods were exempted from sanctions, tens of thousands of patients in Iran have, over the years, died or developed critical ailments due to the unavailability of essential drugs.

Iranian officials have consistently argued that these measures collectively punish ordinary citizens and impede the country’s socioeconomic development.

The new international day was formally established by the UN General Assembly in June 2025, reflecting growing calls from the Non-Aligned Movement and several developing nations to address what they describe as the harmful humanitarian impact of unilateral sanctions.

Iranian authorities used the occasion to reiterate their long-standing position that such measures contravene international law and the UN Charter, and called on the international community to strengthen efforts to eliminate them.

In July 2024, the Tehran Legal Court of International Relations ruled that the US government and its officials must pay $6.785 billion in material, moral, and punitive damages to plaintiffs representing Iran’s EB patients.

The ruling was made after 295 Iranian EB patients and family members lodged lawsuits in protest at the US-imposed sanctions that had hampered the import of much-needed pharmaceuticals and wound dressings for those suffering from the rare skin disease.