Iran vows retaliation against new US sanctions

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the US move to impose new economic sanctions against Tehran over its ballistic missile program as “cheap and useless,” saying Tehran will respond with its own sanctions against the Americans.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry condemned the US move to add new names to its list of illegal sanctions against Iran and said the Islamic Republic "will in turn impose new sanctions against a number of other American persons and entities that have taken hostile steps against the Iranian people and other Muslim nations in the region."

It added that the name of these new American persons and entities would be announced soon.

The statement came after the administration of US President Donald Trump said it was imposing new economic sanctions against Iran over the Islamic Republic’s missile program hours after the White House admitted that Tehran was complying with a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement it signed with the P5+1 group of countries.

The US departments of treasury and state said Tuesday that they were targeting 18 Iranian individuals, groups and networks.

Read more:

• US adding new sanctions against Iran over missile program

Iranian lawmakers also on Tuesday passed a single-urgency bill, which designates US military forces and intelligence services as supporters of terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The bill, whose single urgency was passed on the Parliament floor, read, “In view of the overt support provided to terrorist groups by the US government and the country’s military and intelligence forces and repeated confessions by American officials to having created terrorist groups and offered them all-out support, from the standpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the entirety of the United States’ military and intelligence forces are considered as supporters of terrorist groups in the region.”

Read more:

• US military, intelligence bodies harbor terrorists in region: Iranian lawmakers

Meanwhile, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Division, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said Iran’s hands should not be tied in the face of the enemy’s sanctions and pressure, emphasizing that the IRGC's suggestion is that the country should take retaliatory measures to counteract US pressure and bans.

Read more:

• Iran self-sufficient in producing missiles, drones, smart bombs: IRGC commander

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