UNITED NATIONS • Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has urged greater international control of sanctions, criticising US attempts to force all countries to stop doing business with Iran.

"We do not know under what laws sanctions are applied. It appears to be the privilege of the rich and the powerful," the 94-year-old leader said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

"If you want to have sanctions, let us have a law to govern them," he said. "The fact is that when sanctions are applied to a country, other countries get sanctioned as well. Malaysia and many others lost a big market when sanctions were applied on Iran."

The United States has increasingly used sanctions as a diplomatic tool, with President Donald Trump threatening other nations with punishment if they buy oil from Iran. Seeking to curb Iran's regional influence, Mr Trump unilaterally imposed the sanctions after walking away from a multinational nuclear deal.

Speaking to reporters after his address, Tun Dr Mahathir acknowledged that Malaysian firms had little choice but to comply for fear of being hit by US sanctions. "Generally, the world is helpless," he said.

Separately, in an interview published yesterday, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia does not want to take a confrontational stance towards China over the disputed South China Sea and Beijing's alleged mistreatment of its minority Uighur Muslims.

Malaysia is too small to face up to the Asian powerhouse, even though Chinese ships surveying its waters for oil and gas in the South China Sea do so without permission, he told BenarNews online news service in New York.

This month, China and Malaysia agreed to set up a joint dialogue mechanism for the South China Sea.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS