The United States, Britain, France and Canada imposed more new sanctions on Iran’s financial and energy sectors. The Islamic Republic dismissed the western move as "futile."

The United States, Britain, France and Canada imposed more new sanctions on Iran's financial and energy sectors. The Islamic Republic dismissed the western move as "futile."

According to an executive order issued by the White House to the U.S. Congress on Monday, Washington will be "expanding sanctions to target the supply of goods, services, technology, or support…to Iran for the development of its petroleum resources and maintenance or expansion of its petrochemical industry."

For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast condemned the sanctions “which just show the hostility of these countries toward Iran".
"These sanctions are futile repetitious efforts which will not affect Iran's economy," he said in Tehran.

"Such illogical, intimidating moves are propaganda and psychological war which however will not change our nation's will but just make us more united," Mehmanparast added.

However, these sanctions fall short of the statements made by French President Nikolas Sarkozy earlier Monday, calling world powers to target Iran's central bank by freezing overseas assets. The American measures do not specifically deal with The Central Bank of Iran, and only target its petroleum industry.

Diplomat said that EU governments could reach a preliminary deal on Tuesday to add about 190 Iranian
Canadian government said on Monday it would immediately ban the export to Iran of all goods used in the petrochemical, oil and gas industry as part of an international sanctions package.

RUSSIAN STANCE
On the other hand, Russia also dismissed the measures as "unacceptable", saying they would hurt the chances of renewing talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.

"We again underline that the Russian Federation considers such extraterritorial measures unacceptable and contradictory to international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in the statement on Tuesday.