Russia says new US sanctions on Iran unacceptable

MOSCOW: Russia dismissed new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s financial and energy sectors as “unacceptable” on Tuesday and said they would hurt the chances of renewing talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme.

A sharply worded Russian statement underscored Moscow’s longstanding opposition to sanctions beyond those endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, where Russia holds veto power as a permanent member.

“We again underline that the Russian Federation considers such extraterritorial measures unacceptable and contradictory to international law,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in the statement.

It indicated that despite agreement last week on a U.N. nuclear agency board resolution that expressed increasing concern about Iran’s nuclear programme, Russia differs sharply with the West on how to win Tehran’s cooperation.

“Such practices … seriously complicate efforts for constructive dialogue with Tehran,” Lukashevich said.

The United States, which fears Tehran’s nuclear programme is aimed at developing atomic weapons, named Iran on Monday as an area of “primary money laundering concern” in a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it.

It also blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran says is meant for peaceful purposes including power generation, and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries.

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Iran blasts new sanctions as ‘reprehensible, ineffective’

TEHRAN: Iran on Tuesday blasted new sanctions against the Islamic republic announced by the United States, Britain and Canada as “reprehensible and ineffective.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast made the comments a day after Washington, London and Ottawa said they were levelling additional sanctions on Iran’s financial sector because of a report by the UN atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons.

“These actions show the hostility of these countries towards our people. They are reprehensible and ineffective,” Mehmanparast said during his regular weekly media briefing.

He said US and British sanctions previously imposed on Iran had likewise proved ineffective.

The new ones amounted to little more than “propaganda and psychological warfare,” he said.

“Everybody knows our trade with Britain and the United States is at its lowest point. These past years we have decided for various reasons to reduce exchanges with those two countries to a minimum, so as to increase them with other countries,” Mehmanparast said.

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL