Iran says new USA economic sanctions over missile test are ‘illegitimate’

Yet underscoring the strain that continues to exist between the USA and Iran, the Obama administration also announced new penalties Sunday on 11 individuals and entities involved in Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

“Iran will respond to such (U.S.) acts of propaganda and harassment by seriously continuing its missile program and enhancing its defensive capabilities and national security”, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said at his weekly press briefing.

On Saturday the USA and European Union lifted sanctions against Iran after a report by the global nuclear watchdog said the country had complied with all of the nuclear agreement’s requirements, including the dismantling of the reactor at its Arak nuclear facility.

Rouhani, speaking at a news conference in Tehran some 90 minutes before the new U.S. measures were announced, was asked what would happen if the United States imposed new sanctions or violated terms of the nuclear agreement.

He said: “The US sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile programme… have no legal or moral legitimacy”. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who was released separately, appears to have left Iran before the others.

Iran also promises more transparency in its nuclear program, letting United Nations nuclear inspectors monitor Tehran’s atomic plan.

Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and former US Marine Amir Hekmati arrived at a US military base in Germany late on Sunday on their way home from Iran.

“I’m so happy for those people and their families to be relieved of this agony”, said Ali Shakeri, an American businessman who is with the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California-Irvine and was imprisoned in Iran in 2007.

He promised to unify the exchange rate within six months, eliminating a black market in which foreign currencies, including the US dollar, are traded at 20 percent higher than their official value. “And we are going to remain vigilant about it”, Obama said.

Under the deal, Iran admitted to cap its nuclear activities in return to lifting sanctions from the country. Iran has always denied seeking an atomic weapon, saying its activities are only for peaceful purposes such as power generation and medical research.