TEHRAN/DUBAI: Iran accused the US of duplicity Saturday for imposing new sanctions on organizations linked to Tehran's nuclear program, despite long-running but active negotiations to end the standoff.

Washington's actions are an act of bad faith, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on state television, in what was the country's first official reaction to US Treasury's latest measures.

"The duplicity of the Americans is totally unacceptable," said Takht-Ravanchi, a key member of the Iranian team that for almost one year has been talking to the West about a nuclear settlement.

Iran's Foreign Ministry later said the new sanctions — on entities America said had either supported terrorism or evaded existing sanctions — were contrary to US commitments under an interim deal.

Later an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said the new US sanctions placed on some Iranian and foreign banks and businesses would have negative consequences on its nuclear negotiations with world powers.

"These actions are inconsistent with the current process of nuclear negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said in remarks quoted by the state news agency IRNA, referring to measure announced by Washington on Friday.

"At a time when the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken confidence building measures based on the agreements, as was reflected by the IAEA reports in Tehran, Iran is expecting the same actions by the US and the rest of the (powers)." The IAEA is the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

She was referring to the Geneva accord under which the US and other world powers agreed in November to relieve some penalties on Iran in exchange for curbs on the latter's nuclear activities.

The US Treasury on Friday announced dozens of measures targeting individuals and entities, including shipping and oil companies, banks and airlines.