Tehran [Iran], December 19: Iran's parliament speaker said on Sunday that the United States uses sanctions as leverage to pressure any country that would stand up against it.
In a meeting with visiting Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada in Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf called for stronger cooperation between the two countries in the areas of economy, agriculture, energy, and technology, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
Stressing the importance of improving bilateral relations in order to safeguard both countries' interests, the Iranian official said such cooperation was especially important for both Iran and Nicaragua as they were both subject to Washington's cruel sanctions.
For his part, the Nicaraguan foreign minister said his visit to Iran is a sign of the two countries' ongoing efforts to advance bilateral relations and increase their reciprocal support in the face of common enemies.
For the past decades, both Iran and Nicaragua have been under U.S. unilateral sanctions. The sanctions on Iran intensified in 2018 after former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
In 1985, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions against Nicaragua, prohibiting all trade between the United States and Nicaragua.
Source: Xinhua
