Lavrov says U.S. sanctions on Iran, Syria harm Russian business

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that U.S. sanctions on Iran and Syria are harming Russian business interests, AFP reported.

"Unilateral U.S. sanctions against Syria and Iran are increasingly becoming extra-territorial in nature and are touching upon the interests of Russian business," Lavrov said after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Russian banks were particularly being affected, Lavrov said.

Washington has imposed asset freezes against more than 100 members of the Syrian government and barred U.S. firms from doing business with them, and slapped sanctions against the Syrian state oil firm Sytrol last month.

"In Syria we are not supporting any sanctions because sanctions will not bring about anything," Lavrov told reporters on the sidelines of the annual APEC summit that Russia is this year hosting in the port city of Vladivostok.

U.S. and its Western allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program which Tehran says is purely for peaceful purposes.

As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.