Iran reacted angrily to a new set of sanctions imposed by the United States because of Iran's ballistic missile program. The economic sanctions imposed are supposed to prevent those involved in the Iranian missiles program from using the U.S. banking system, but is being protested on grounds of unfairness.
Al Arabiya News, citing an ISNA News agency, reported that Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari denied that the missiles being developed will be capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Ansari further said that new economic sanctions are "illegitimate" and "have no legal or moral legitimacy". He accused the United States of selling billions of dollars worth of weapons that are used for "war crimes" against Paletinians, Lebanes and Yemenis.
The United States announced last Sunday the imposition of limited sanctions against 11 companies and individuals which supplied materials and funds for Iran's ballistic missile program. The U.S. Treasury sanctions will prevent those who helped missile program from using the U.S. banking system. Reuters reported that hardline Iranian newspapers, Kayhan and Vatan-e-Emrooz, headlined the new sanctions overshadowing the announcement by President Hassan Rouhani of the lifting of nuclear sanctions. The Kayhan news article quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that the new sanctions would constitute a breach of the nuclear agreement.
U.S. acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Adam J. Szubin, announced the sanctions claiming that the ballistic missile program of Iran "poses a threat to regional and global security", reports the BBC. Iran tested a precision-guided ballistic missile last October which the United States claims as being capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. But sanctions were not imposed immediately because final negotiations were ongoing for the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers as well as negotiations for a prisoner swap.
Last January 16, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it had verified that Iran had abided by the agreement to restrict its sensitive nuclear activities. This resulted in the lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations. On the day the sanctions were lifted, four American-Iranians in Iran and seven Iranians in the US were released in a prisoner swap deal.
