By IANS,
Tehran : Iran Tuesday condemned the new sanctions by the European Union (EU) over its controversial nuclear programme, and said the sanctions are ” meaningless and against the international laws”.
“The sanctions are illegal and show the EU’s double standards and contradictory approach during the time the packages of proposals are being studied”, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said, adding that Tehran strongly condemned the sanctions, official IRNA news agency reported.
The 27-member EU agreed Monday during a meeting in Luxembourg to impose new sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. The measures ban Tehran’s major commercial bank, Bank Melli, from operating in Europe.
“Such an approach will have the opposite effect and will not help create an atmosphere for a diplomatic resolution to the situation,” Hosseini warned.
The spokesman also suggested the EU pay attention to an acceptable solution away from “mock measures”.
Iran is currently under three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, which the Western countries fear could be used for producing nuclear weapons.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purpose.
UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been inspecting Iran’s nuclear facilities for more than five years, but has failed to determine whether the Islamic country’s nuclear program has a military angle.
However, the so-called Iran Six – the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – have called on Iran to impose a moratorium on nuclear activities prior to any talks on the issue.