Iranian officials dismiss latest U.S. sanctions

(News Today) - Iranian officials are dismissing newly passed U.S. sanctions against their country, with one parliament member saying that the measures will only backfire against the United States, according to state-run media reports Saturday.

"The U.S. move to impose sanctions on Iran is in fact imposing sanctions on their own firms," the semi-official Iranian Student News Agency quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi as saying. Boroujerdi is the head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday approved tough new sanctions on Iran aimed at discouraging the Islamic republic's development of nuclear weapons. The sanctions target companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran and international banks that do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature.

Boroujerdi said the sanctions have had an impact on Iran's self-sufficiency, saying "even in some cases, such as providing gas, we can use our local potentials or other resources to meet our needs," according to ISNA.

Another security and foreign policy commission member, Hossein Sobhani-Nia, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that the United States has gone to great lengths to dissuade Iran from pursuing "peaceful nuclear energy," but its efforts have failed.

"The U.S. [is] stuck in a quagmire that it wants to exit by intensifying the sanctions," he said, according to IRNA.

The U.S. sanctions come about a week after the U.N. Security Council voted to impose similarly tough measures against Iran to try to force the hard-line regime to suspend its nuclear program.

Source : CNN

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