Iran denounces new US sanctions

E-Paper | October 02, 2026

Iran denounces new US sanctions

Agencies Published January 19, 2016

TEHRAN: Iran denounced new US sanctions on its missile programme on Monday but pushed ahead with international cooperation after a historic deal on its nuclear programme.

Iran’s foreign ministry decried the new measures as “illegitimate”, with spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari insisting the missile programme has no link with the nuclear issue.

“Iran’s missile programme has never been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons,” he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

He said Iran would respond by “accelerating its legal ballistic missile programme and boosting defence capabilities”.

Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said the new sanctions would have “no effect”, telling the Fars news agency: “We will prove it in practice by unveiling new missile achievements.”

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the European Union would discuss this week whether it needed to impose new sanctions on Iran.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2016

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Khan

Jan 19, 2016 08:25am

Looks like the game is off before taking off. West will ask to do more and more except to Israel..

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SRIDHAR RAGHUNATHA RAO

Jan 19, 2016 09:31am

I beg to differ. I was one of very many who appreciated Iranian President H E Hassan Rouhani when he made his breakthrough address in UN General Assembly about use of Nuclear Programme for peaceful purposes. His diplomatic mission yielded high returns with the very recent lifting of sanctions on Iran and Iran realising billions of dollars worth of frozen assets. This being the background reality, missile programme certainly has no place in peaceful programmes. This again provides room to serious doubts.

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Ahmed Haneef

Jan 19, 2016 08:15pm

Severing Diplomatic ties or sanction can not put Iran's head down because Iranian nation has spent 35 years with tougher incidents and events.

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