A senior Iranian lawmaker played down the effectiveness of the US-led sanctions against Iranian individuals and firms, and said Washington should come to realize that such moves would kill Tehran's trust in the western members of the six major world powers which are party to the nuclear talks with Iran.
“The new sanctions (against Iran) will not only fail to have any achievement for Washington but will weaken the US stance in the negotiations between Iran and the Group5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany),” First Vice-Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi Fard said on Monday.
His remarks followed the US government's announcement of a slew of penalties targeting dozens of Iranian individuals and entities, including shipping and oil companies, banks and airlines.
Also on Monday, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezayee warned the western states that if the US-led West continues to keep its sanctions against Iran in place, Tehran will take action to remove the embargoes by itself.
"Despite the West's imposition of cruel sanctions against our country, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has tried to restore the rights of the nation based on an interactional approach but apparently, the leaders of the hegemonic system don’t understand the language of diplomacy and negotiations with Iran," Rezayee said in a meeting with Dutch Ambassador to Tehran Johannes Doma in Tehran.
"I want you to tell them that if the sanctions will not be removed by the end of this (Iranian) year, we will break them," he added.
Rezayee blasted the western states, specially the US, for imposing new sanctions against Iran contrary to the Geneva deal inked by Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) in November, and said this shows that they don’t understand interaction and talks.
On November 24, Iran and the world powers sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides.
Iran and the six world powers have been in talks over a final and permanent solution to their nuclear standoff ever since they signed an interim deal in Geneva in November.
On July 20, the deadline for reaching a final agreement on Iran's future nuclear activities was postponed by four months—until November 24—to give more time for diplomatic efforts.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton in a joint statement after over two weeks of talks in July stressed the need for more efforts and time to reach an agreement with the world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.
The two officials who presided the negotiating sides, emphasized at the end of Iran-G5+1 negotiations that they have held different sessions in different forms and in a constructive atmosphere to reach a final comprehensive agreement.
Due to certain differences over some fundamental issues the two sides agreed to extend the Joint Plan of Action by November 24, they added.