Iran condemns ‘illegitimate’ US sanctions over missile test

In October, Iran tested a precision-guided ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, in defiance of a United Nations ban.

The article pointed out that Tehran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said new sanctions under any pretext would constitute a breach of the nuclear deal.

Still, said Ansari, “The U.S. sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program… have no legal or moral legitimacy”.

Bayat further said that all these measures need coordination to prevent problems, because the issue is sensitive and hardliners in both Tehran and Washington, as well as some U.S. regional allies such as Israel and certain Arab countries, will spare no opportunity to harm the nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had verified that Iran had restricted its sensitive nuclear activities. “And we will continue to enforce these sanctions, vigorously”. The U.S. also dropped cases against 14 other Iranians it sought to extradite from other countries.

Last week, State Department officials credited Secretary of State John Kerry’s direct talks with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as key to quickly working out the release of 10 USA sailors detained after Iran claimed they crossed into its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. “We’ve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East”, the president said in a rare Sunday public statement. How did they think the Americans were going to be released, if not a prisoner swap with Iranians convicted of violating sanctions?

Three Americans have been released under the negotiated prisoner exchange with Iran. The United States responded by announcing it would end its sanctions on Iran, freeing up $150 billion in frozen assets.

Critics of last year’s nuclear deal argued the release of the prisoners released this weekend should have been included.

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini were flown from Iran to Switzerland then brought to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, for medical treatment.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium – which before the deal, was enough for several bombs – and removing the core of its Arak reactor, which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.