Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei has criticized unilateral sanctions against certain countries, Press TV reported.
Khazaei made the remarks on Tuesday at a UN General Assembly meeting on US economic embargo against Cuba.
Khazaei said that big world powers are not using sanctions to promote global peace, but instead they use them as a measure to impose their will on other countries.
He went on to say that sanctions usually target the most basic rights of nations and only hurt ordinary people.
The Iranian envoy also pointed out that independent countries would never give up their national interests in the face of unilateral sanctions.
On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution calling on the US to lift its decades-long embargo against Cuba, condemning almost a half-century of "a cruel Cold War anachronism."
The final vote by member states was 187 in favor of ending the sanctions, with two votes - the US and Israel - in favor of keeping them.
It was the 19th consecutive year that the General Assembly has taken up the symbolic measure, calling for the "necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."