The Islamic Republic of Iran said the oil embargo adopted by European Union foreign ministers over the country’s nuclear program was unfair and doomed to fail stressing it would not prevent Tehran’s progress.
The Islamic Republic of Iran said the oil embargo adopted by European Union foreign ministers over the country's nuclear program was unfair and doomed to fail; stressing it would not prevent Tehran’s progress.
The measures would not prevent Iran's "progress for achieving its basic rights", foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
"Threats, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its policies are doomed to fail”.
"European officials and other countries which are under America's political pressure... should consider their national interests and not deprive themselves of Iran's oil to help US officials achieve their secret aims”, Mehmanparast added.
The sanctions were formally adopted at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The sanctions freeze the assets of Iran's central bank in European Union nations and ban the importation of Iranian oil to those countries. The measures also block European Union countries from exporting petrochemical equipment and technology to Iran, or trading diamonds and precious metals with the Middle Eastern state.
For his part, US President Barack Obama welcomed the EU sanctions, saying they show international unity against the "serious threat" posed by Iran's nuclear program.
Iran had "failed to restore international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program", British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a joint statement.
"We will not accept Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran has so far had no regard for its international obligations and is already exporting and threatening violence around its region," the leaders added.
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the European Union's decision on Monday to impose sanctions on Iran's oil exports, calling the decision "a step in the right direction."
According to Netanyahu, who spoke at an afternoon Likud faction meeting, it is still too early to predict the outcome of the sanctions, but emphasized the “importance” of continual pressure on Iran in light of "its continual, uninterrupted development of nuclear weapons."