By Xinhua,
Tehran : Iran on Tuesday condemned new European Union (EU) sanctions against Iran over the country’s disputable nuclear program, saying such measures are “illegal.”
“Such illegal and contradictory behavior of double standards when packages are being studied is meaningless and is strongly condemned,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said in a statement.
He was referring to separate packages of proposals put forward by Iran and by six world powers aimed to help solve a long-running dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Hosseini said the EU’s move would not have any effect on Iran’s nuclear activities and would not help create a “appropriate atmosphere to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels.”
The 27-member EU on Monday decided at a meeting in Luxembourg to freeze the assets of Iran’s largest bank, Bank Melli, and impose a travel ban on high-level experts dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.
Under the new sanctions, the operations of the bank at its European offices in London, Hamburg and Paris will be stopped, while another 20 individuals and 15 organizations were added to EU’s visa-ban and assets-freeze lists.
The new sanctions were imposed after Iran refused to halt uranium enrichment activities.