Iran condemns U.S. move to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela

TEHRAN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Thursday condemned the U.S. move to reimpose sanctions against Venezuela.

He made the remarks in a statement published on the ministry's website while commenting on the recent U.S. threats to resume sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas sector in response to the decision by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government to ban a leading opposition candidate from running for president later this year.

Kanaani said it amounted to direct interference in other countries' internal affairs and was in violation of the United Nations Charter, stressing that leveraging sanctions against other countries as deterrents violated the rights of these countries' governments, as well as human rights and international law.

Washington on Tuesday reimposed sanctions on Venezuela targeting its oil and gas sector after Venezuela's Supreme Justice Tribunal Friday upheld a ban prohibiting the country's opposition presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado from holding public office.

The United States initially imposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas sector when Maduro started his second term in 2019.

In October 2023, the U.S. eased these sanctions, issuing a relief, known as General License 44, to allow certain transactions with Venezuela's oil and gas industry, following an agreement in Barbados between the Maduro administration and the opposition, which allows all opposition candidates to compete in the 2024 presidential election in Venezuela.