Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has slammed fresh sanctions placed on Tehran by the European Union, calling it “as absurd as it is immoral and utterly unlawful”.

“You seek to punish Iran for exercising its inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter and for resisting the brutal and unlawful aggression of the United States and the Israeli regime, while you continue to arm, shield, and enable those very genocidal aggressors,” he has said on X, replying to a post by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

He said the EU’s stance is tantamount to “nothing less than active complicity in international lawlessness and heinous atrocity crimes”.