US fresh sanctions on Iran violate Geneva nuclear deal

Supreme Leader's top Advisor for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati described the United States' recent sanctions on Iranian firms and individuals as counterproductive and a clear violation of the interim nuclear deal cut by Iran and the six major world powers in Geneva on November 24, 2013.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with a number of Egyptian journalists, Velayati, who is also the head of Iran's Expediency Council Strategic Research Center, said that as it is stipulated in the Geneva deal, the negotiating parties were committed not to impose new sanctions on Tehran.
"We denounce new sanctions, but, they will not affect our principled stand," he said.
"New US sanctions are condemned and we will continue our way and proceed with the talks," Velayati said, noting that Iran's negotiating team has shown that it will not take one step back from the nation's legitimate rights.
Velayati further noted that Iran will attend the talks while persisting on its principles, one of which is the country's right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"We believe in talks and continuing them; of course the other sides have no common stance regarding Iran," he said, recalling different attitudes of Russia and China compared with other countries.
His remarks followed the US government's announcement of a slew of penalties targeting dozens of Iranian individuals and entities, including shipping and oil companies, banks and airlines.
The latest sanctions - which Washington said were leveled as punishment for existing restrictions being skirted - come despite Iran's ongoing talks with the West which are aimed at ending the decade-long nuclear dispute.
On Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the United States' new sanctions, and said they are against the Geneva agreement.
"This move fully runs counter to the trend of the settlement of the nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in a statement on Saturday.
She said that Iran dismisses any unilateral interpretation of the Geneva deal by the US and "strongly believes that the imposed sanctions are against the US undertakings based on the Geneva agreement".
Stressing that the new sanctions will leave negative and unconstructive impacts on the trend of the nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), Afkham said, "Such measures question specially the seriousness, honesty and good will of the US and other parties to the negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and bring uncertainty and doubt in their commitment to any possible final agreement which should certainly guarantee the removal of all illegal and illegitimate sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
She said that while Iran has taken confidence-building measures reflected in numerous reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Tehran expects similar moves by the US and other G5+1 members and reserves its right to adopt reciprocal measures.
"The US and other members of the G5+1 which have kept mum on these explicit violations of the Geneva agreement are responsible for the consequences of this trend," Afkham said.
"The era of using the inefficient tactic of pressure and negation is over and it is the time for the US to seriously and explicitly adopt a stable realistic approach to Iran's peaceful nuclear program and show a steady practical attitude accordingly," she added.