Russia's foreign minister described U.S. unilateral sanctions on Tehran as "unacceptable in principle" especially if used for self-serving purposes.
Russia has backed
Iran's right to develop its weapons capabilities while denouncing
Washington's new batch of unilateral of sanctions as "unacceptable and
irresponsible.”
Moscow also said the measures go against the spirit of the P5+1 nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA.
"The missile program
budget is basically Iran’s business. It is not prohibited from having
this program," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a
joint news conference with his Bolivian counterpart, Fernando Huanacuni
Mamani. "There are no legal bans in UN Security Council resolutions on
this issue."
Lavrov also warned Washington against upsetting the deal, which was
agreed after more than a year of painstaking negotiations in July 2015
by Iran, the European Union, Germany, and the five permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council — Russia, the United States, China,
France, United Kingdom.
Since then, the U.S.
has imposed various restrictions on Iran over its missile program, the
most recent were announced on July 28.
"Unilateral sanctions
are unacceptable in principle and irresponsible if they are used to
change in one’s favor a well-calibrated balance (as is the case with the
Iran nuclear deal) because they may upset this balance,” Lavrov said.
"One shouldn't resort to such provocations because the matter deals not
even with national interests of a country but with an enormous region
where we are interested in ensuring a nuclear-free status.”
"One should not come
up with such provocations, since the issue at hand is the interests of a
vast region where we would like to secure a non-nuclear status rather
than some individual country’s national interests," he added.
The warning comes
after Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, stated that any continuation of
Washington's hostile attitude would result in Tehran scrapping the deal
and returning its nuclear program to a pre-JCPOA operational level.
Expressing his hope
that Tehran abstains from such a move, Lavrov added that the White
House's adherence to its commitments remain equally important.
