Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has slammed sanctions placed on the country by the European Union, stating that they “trample” the basic rights of Iran’s citizens.

The spokesperson’s comments have been made in response to remarks by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said it was “too early” to lift sanctions on Iran.

“[The] EU’s inhuman sanctions on Iran were never about ‘human rights’ — they were designed to trample the basic rights of ordinary Iranians,” Baghaei says on X, adding that nobody is “buying this tired moral theatre”.

“Such posturing won’t earn you — or your constituency — an ounce of credibility on the world stage,” he states, addressing von der Leyen. “If anything, it only further demonstrates Europe’s ruling class’s double-standard and hypocrisy, and hastens Europe’s embarrassing descent into irrelevance.”