Iran: US-imposed missile test sanctions are ‘illegitimate’

Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said Washington’s weapons sales to governments in the Middle East undermine the moral basis for the new sanctions, which deny 11 companies and individuals access to the USA banking system.

Iran released five Americans on Saturday as part of a prisoner swap with the United States, to reduce decades-old hostility as worldwide sanctions were lifted on the Islamic Republic.

In remarks shortly before the United States announcement, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that any new American sanctions would be “met by an appropriate response”.

He said the country will react to the “propagandist and harassing measures by following up on its legal missile program in earnest and further improve the country’s defense capabilities and national security”. In return, USA officials have said Obama will grant clemency to seven Iranians charged or convicted of attempting to evade the US nuclear sanctions against Iran. The U.S. has only removed secondary sanctions that restrict the dealings of other countries with Iran.

During his speech, the president also said that a fifth US citizen student, Matthew Trevithick, imprisoned by Iran was released as well separately Saturday.

Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian has safely left Iran as part of a prisoner-swap between the USA and Iran, his newspaper said Sunday. The president also announced that the two nations had reached a settlement on a financial dispute dating back to the 1980s that would save the U.S.”billions of dollars”.

The network “obfuscated the end user of sensitive goods for missile proliferation by using front companies in third countries to deceive foreign suppliers”, the statement said, adding that the five people had “worked to procure ballistic missile components for Iran”.

But Rouhani noted bitter opposition to the lifting of economic curbs from arch foe Israel, some members of the US Congress and what he called “warmongers” in the region – an apparent reference to some of Iran’s Gulf Arab adversaries.

Cooperation on the nuclear program was moving forward however, with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano in Tehran for talks with senior officials on Iran’s continued compliance with the deal.