国际英语新闻:Iran warns Washington to stop "illegal actions" against diplomats on U.S. soil

TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran has warned the United States to stop "illegal actions" taken against its diplomats on U.S. soil, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh declared on Saturday.

"Iran has officially warned the U.S. that it will sue it before the International Court of Justice if it does not stop its illegal actions against Iranian diplomats in international organizations," Khatibzadeh said, as quoted by news agency IRNA.

The spokesman noted an official warning has been delivered to U.S. authorities through the Foreign Interests Section of the Swiss embassy in Tehran.

Washington should refrain from taking "illegal action" against Iranian representatives before international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that have their siege on U.S. soil, Khatibzadeh stated.

For a long time, he carried on, the U.S. government has been creating "illegal constraints" for Iranian diplomats and their families, disrupting their work and that of other countries.

Despite its commitment as host to several international organizations, Khatibzadeh went on to say, Washington has "never been a proper host," and has consistently harassed diplomats, their families, and children coming from countries it has problems with.

Also on Saturday, the Iranian President's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi slammed the latest sanctions imposed by Washington against Iran as a mere "show" and a sign of the "evil nature" of the outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

"The recent U.S. sanctions, while nothing more than a show, are another sign of the evil [nature] of Trump's criminal administration - a bankrupt government that even in its final days cannot put aside its hostility towards Iranians," Vaezi wrote on social media, as quoted by Iran's Press TV.

Vaezi wrote on his note that it is "surprising" that, despite their "deep brazen enmity," U.S. officials "still claim that they stand by the Iranian people."