Iran Deplores US New Sanctions as Spoiler of Talks

(FNA)- Iran on Wednesday condemned Washington for adding nine individuals and entities to its Iran sanctions blacklist, stressing that the embargoes mean a negative move amid the talks underway between Tehran and the six world powers, including the US.

"We deplore the US administration's imposition of new embargoes on a number of other companies and people under the pretext of their partnership in purchasing the sanctioned goods and equipment, and we believe they violate the US undertakings under the Joint Plan of Action (Geneva agreement inked in November 2013 between Tehran and the Group 5+1 - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany)," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in her weekly press conference in Tehran on Wednesday.

"Under such circumstances that the negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 to reach a comprehensive agreement are underway, this measure is a blatant violation of the good will principle and places a question mark on the goals pursued by the US administration through the negotiations," she added.

Afkham, meantime, downplayed the effects of such acts on Iran's interactions with the world states to supply its industrial and trade needs.

Also asked by reporters on the US Congress new bill to impose more sanctions against Iran, she said the US administration will be responsible for the implementation of any possible agreement between Tehran and the world powers.

The new sanctions were imposed against Tehran while the Iranian officials have always underlined the country's determination to settle the nuclear dispute with the West and the necessity for the full removal of all sanctions if there is to be a deal with the world powers.

"The negotiating team backed by the Iranian nation's resistance, seeks the removal of sanctions all at once," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, addressing a meeting with Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday.

Noting that the sensitive nature of the negotiations and the differences had prolonged the negotiations between Tehran and the Group 5+1, he said, "The negotiations continue in a precise manner."

Zarif underscored that the Iranian side was aware of the pressures exerted on the other side and would continue the talks, adding that based on Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei's order, "if there is a logical proposal, we will accept it, otherwise, we will be ready for any outcomes".

In a relevant development earlier this month, Zarif sent separate letters to his counterparts in all the world states to reiterate that any nuclear deal with the world powers should include annulment of all sanctions against Tehran.

"… lifting of all sanctions, is an essential component of any agreement. But some members of P5+1 (G5+1) have become increasingly reluctant to abandon this counterproductive, illegal and inhuman instrument of coercion even at the expense of putting in jeopardy the entire process that provides certainty and assures transparency," Zarif said in separate letters to his counterparts in different world states.

He briefed his counterparts on the latest developments in the negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the G5+1 on Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.