Iran sanctions not without costs for US: Larijani

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has denounced US Senate's adoption of new sanctions on Iran, saying the new restrictions against Tehran will not be without costs for Washington.

News ID: ۷۴۲۵۸۲

08 July 2017

Last month, US Senate voted for a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program, alleged support for terrorism and human rights violations. The bill would become law if passed in the House of Representatives and signed by US President Donald Trump, according to PressTV.

Addressing the administrative council of Iran’s northern Gilan Province on Thursday, Larijani said US officials “might suppose they could put up new roadblocks for Iran, but it is not like that they would incur costs on us without paying anything themselves."

Iranian officials say the new US restrictions violate a landmark nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to which the US is a party.

Under the JCPOA signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China - plus Germany, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the top Iranian parliamentarian touched on foreign-backed terrorism plaguing the region and said the scourge had backfired on its supporters.

“Support for terrorism, including financial assistance, albeit being perilous to us over the past decades, has afflicted its sponsors as well,” Larijani said.

"Certain countries' support for terrorism is not a matter of the recent one or two years. It has been for decades that big powers and some regional countries have been using pressure and terrorism [against Iran]," he added.

Larijani said, "Such measures did not affect the Islamic Republic, because we aptly managed and resolved these problems with appropriate decisions."