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Combative Iran scoffs at new US sanctions
Source: Agencies |
November 23, 2011, Wednesday
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IRAN'S foreign ministry spokesman yesterday denounced Washington's new set of sanctions against Tehran, predicting the measures will have no effect and dismissing them as "propaganda and psychological warfare."
The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast were the first from Iran after the Obama administration announced the new measures on Monday in an effort to apply greater pressure to get Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
The measures were coordinated with Britain and Canada and built on previous sanctions to target Iran's oil and petrochemical industries and companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity. The US also declared Iran's banking system a center for money laundering - a stern warning to financial institutions around the world to think twice before doing business with Tehran.
Shortly after the announcement, US President Barack Obama said in a statement that "Iran has chosen the path of international isolation" and that "as long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime."
The latest sanctions follow a new report from the United Nations nuclear watchdog that suggested Iran is working toward developing atomic weapons. Iran denies pursuing a nuclear weapons program, saying its nuclear activities are aimed at peaceful purposes like power generation.
"The action that some Western countries, particularly United States and Britain are pursuing, will be without result," said Mehmanparast. He added that, like past sanctions, the new ones are "only attempts at propaganda and psychological warfare."
"The sanctions reflect the enmity toward our nation and are to be condemned."
He said the measures will be ineffective as Iran's trade and economic ties with the US and Britain were small anyway.
Release of the International Atomic Energy Agency's report had sparked frenzied international diplomacy over how to halt the Iranian nuclear program, including speculation in the US, Europe and Israel on the merits of military intervention.
The UN has passed four rounds of global sanctions against Iran since 2006. American officials have held back from blanketing all of Iran's fuel-related exports and its central bank with sanctions, for fear of spiking world oil prices and hampering the American economic recovery.
Mehmanparast also denied reports that Iran had supplied former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi with hundreds of special artillery shells for chemical weapons, which Libya kept secret for decades.
The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast were the first from Iran after the Obama administration announced the new measures on Monday in an effort to apply greater pressure to get Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
The measures were coordinated with Britain and Canada and built on previous sanctions to target Iran's oil and petrochemical industries and companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity. The US also declared Iran's banking system a center for money laundering - a stern warning to financial institutions around the world to think twice before doing business with Tehran.
Shortly after the announcement, US President Barack Obama said in a statement that "Iran has chosen the path of international isolation" and that "as long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime."
The latest sanctions follow a new report from the United Nations nuclear watchdog that suggested Iran is working toward developing atomic weapons. Iran denies pursuing a nuclear weapons program, saying its nuclear activities are aimed at peaceful purposes like power generation.
"The action that some Western countries, particularly United States and Britain are pursuing, will be without result," said Mehmanparast. He added that, like past sanctions, the new ones are "only attempts at propaganda and psychological warfare."
"The sanctions reflect the enmity toward our nation and are to be condemned."
He said the measures will be ineffective as Iran's trade and economic ties with the US and Britain were small anyway.
Release of the International Atomic Energy Agency's report had sparked frenzied international diplomacy over how to halt the Iranian nuclear program, including speculation in the US, Europe and Israel on the merits of military intervention.
The UN has passed four rounds of global sanctions against Iran since 2006. American officials have held back from blanketing all of Iran's fuel-related exports and its central bank with sanctions, for fear of spiking world oil prices and hampering the American economic recovery.
Mehmanparast also denied reports that Iran had supplied former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi with hundreds of special artillery shells for chemical weapons, which Libya kept secret for decades.
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