TEHRAN – Iran, in a letter to the director of Vienna-based United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), has protested at Washington's sanctions against the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) and two other space research institutions as a violation of the international law.

The permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Vienna-based international organizations handed over the protest letter to the UNOOSA director.

The letter points at the recent the U.S. illegal and unilateral sanctions against the ISA, Space Research Center and Outer Space Research Institution whose responsibilities and missions have only concentrated on non-military and peaceful uses of outer space activities.

The letter further underlines that the U.S. hostile unilateral measures are in contrast to international law in general and cooperation principles in the fields of space activities and free access of all government to space in particular.

The letter further emphasizes that Iran is a country prone to natural disasters including earthquake, flooding, drought, etc, so utilizing space technology is vital for preventing the disasters and narrowing down their side-effects.

On March 19, 2019, massive downpours began sweeping Iran, with raging currents of water battering houses, washing away cars and killing people in several provinces.

The intense rainfalls eventually caused rivers to burst their banks triggering the worst flooding in decades in 25 of the country’s 31 provinces.

The flooding caused an estimated $2.5 billion in damage to roads, bridges, homes and farmland. It affected 4,400 villages, damaged 14,000 kilometers of roads and destroyed more than 700 bridges.

MJ/PA