DUBAI: Iran has played down the impact of US sanctions that came into effect this week, but said the measures would complicate a resolution to the dispute over its nuclear program.
The new sanctions, which came into effect on Monday, target trade with Iran’s shipping and automobile sectors, gold sales to Iran and handling of the Iranian currency, the rial — a further attempt to force Tehran to curb its nuclear activities.
In recent years, Iran has vigorously pursued its development of nuclear technology which Western countries suspect is masking its attempts to develop a weapons capability, allegations Iranian officials have repeatedly denied.
“We have no doubt that sanctions are a broken policy and we are surprised about why the American government and other governments who take part in these sanctions continually repeat a mistaken and failed policy,” the state television website quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said.
“Removing sanctions would count as a confidence-building measure and can assist in a resolution of the issue but increasing sanctions would have no result, apart from making the issue more complex and harder to resolve,” he said.
Hopes for a resolution to the nuclear dispute were boosted last month with the election as president of Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator who promises a softer approach to foreign relations than incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Analysts say it remains uncertain whether Iran with Rowhani as president will be more amenable to the demands of world powers that it halt its most sensitive enrichment, to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, and stop work at Fordow, an underground nuclear facility where uranium is enriched.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on all the big decisions in Iran, especially on the nuclear issue.
Last week the head of Iran’s atomic energy organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, said there would be no change in Iran’s production of enriched uranium to produce fuel.
Iran: new US sanctions will complicate nuclear issue
