Baqeri Kani was speaking at a meeting with ambassadors and representatives of other countries to Tehran, which was held at the foreign ministry building on Wednesday and aimed to clarify recent developments in Iran.

The diplomat referred to unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US against Iran, including sanctions on medicine imports, which he noted have resulted in the death of many people, among them children.

"Have you ever asked yourself that despite the fact that in the past few weeks you have heard the name of the Iranian girl 'Mahsa Amini' many times in the positions and stances of Western officials and in the news and reports produced by the Western media, but until now there is no name of the ten-year-old girl 'Zahra Papi' from Lorestan, and another ten year on boy 'Amir Hossein Naroi' from Zabul as well as 623 thalassemia patients who have been murdered since 2018 due to unilateral cruel sanctions and denial of access to needed medicines?" he stated.

"You have definitely not heard of it. The answer is very clear, those imposing sanctions are not willing to admit to the crimes caused by the sanctions, let alone create political and media space for it," the senior official added.

Human Rights Chief Denies Claims over Sanctions Waiver for Humanitarian Goodshttps://t.co/vWrYDj4XiF pic.twitter.com/X1g9Igiazu

— Fars News Agency (@EnglishFars) September 14, 2022

Baqeri Kani unredlined that "the illegal and oppressive sanctions" against the Iranian nation are considered "the world’s biggest project of systematic human rights violations" – the United States is the project manager of the sanctions, with many Western countries running it.

"The purpose of this project is simply to present the Iranian nation with a dilemma: surrender or die!" he stressed.

"Do you know how many of my compatriots have been killed, injured, unemployed, had their income severely reduced or even denied access to humanitarian items by the silent arrows of cruel unilateral sanctions?" the top siplomat underscored.

"Now here is the question posed by the innocent people whose fundamental rights have been violated: Which Human Rights Council’s Member States are going to deal with the systematic, widespread, and incessant violations of the rights of the Iranian people caused by the unilateral sanctions?" Iran's deputy foreign minister asked.

Iranian FM: Sanctions Modern Tool for Violating Human Rightshttps://t.co/WYOvVWEVbC pic.twitter.com/9uH7t0I6ra

— Fars News Agency (@EnglishFars) October 20, 2022

The US launched the so-called maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against Iran in May 2018, after unilaterally exiting the 2015 nuclear deal.

The sanctions have restricted the financial channels necessary to pay for basic goods and medicine, undermining supply chains by limiting the number of suppliers willing to facilitate sales of humanitarian goods to the country.

Iran has repeatedly denounced the sanctions as an act of “economic war”, “economic terrorism”, and “medical terrorism”.

The US launched the so-called maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against Iran in May 2018, after unilaterally exiting the 2015 nuclear deal.

The sanctions have restricted the financial channels necessary to pay for basic goods and medicine, undermining supply chains by limiting the number of suppliers willing to facilitate sales of humanitarian goods to the country.

READ MORE: Minister Underlines Dire Impacts of Sanctions on Iran’s Healthcare System

Iran has repeatedly denounced the sanctions as an act of “economic war”, “economic terrorism”, and “medical terrorism”.

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

Iranian officials have rejected Washington's claim that it has exempted humanitarian trade from sanctions against Tehran.