MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2020) US sanctions imposed on some Iranian scientists for their participation in Iran's nuclear program will have no effect, Spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Behrouz Kamalvandi said.
On Monday, US announced new sanctions against a number of entities and individuals for assisting Iran's nuclear program.
"This measure will not have any effect on the activities of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization," Kamalvandi told the Iranian ISNA news agency on Monday.
According to the spokesman, Washington is trying to get away from a series of failures in what concerns its attempts to restore international sanctions against Iran.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order greenlighting severe economic penalties on foreign nations, corporations and individuals that violate the UN arms embargo on Tehran.
The Trump administration also announced on Monday new sanctions and export control measures on 27 entities and individuals connected to "Iran's proliferation networks," among them nuclear scientists and a logistic branch of the Iranian military.
Washington said that it would enforce the reinstatement of international anti-Iranian sanctions, despite no backing for it at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The international conventional arms embargo is set to expire next month after the UNSC rejected a US proposal to prolong it. Now the US considers it in place indefinitely after it initiated the snapback sanctions mechanism of the Iranian nuclear agreement. Other key council members, including Russia and European nations, rejected the move, claiming that the Americans lost legal rights for it after they left the JCPOA deal with Iran in 2018.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday that the US would continue its "maximum pressure campaign" against Iran until a comprehensive agreement is reached.
