Speaking during the cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani said, the Iranian Parliament would adopt reciprocal measures in response to the US sanctions.

“And we will take any step that we deem necessary in line with the interests of our country, and we will continue our path without paying attention to their (Americans’) sanctions and policies,” said the Iranian chief executive, as reported by IRNA.

Iranian people, he added, are used to “US hostilities” and know well how to counter them.

Over the past 40 years, the Iranians have been subject to sanctions, pressures and false accusations by American politicians and propaganda apparatus, he added.

The US is not only hostile to Iran’s Islamic establishment, but also to the Iranian nation’s resistance, Rouhani noted, stressing that Washington cannot accept the country as a role model for independence in the region.

President Rouhani noted that the US has no alternative but to pursue peace and respect the Iranian nation’s rights and the Islamic Revolution and the establishment.

Seemingly illegal

France’s Foreign Ministry said the new US sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea appeared at odds with international law due to their extra-territorial reach.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that French and European laws would need to be adjusted in response and added that discussions would be necessary at European Union level because of the potential impact on European citizens and firms.

‘Decisive response’

Earlier in the day, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi also vowed a “decisive response” to the “hostile” move.

“The measure being taken by the US Congress and the new law being passed against Iran, Russia and North Korea is a blatant hostile act against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which will be met with a decisive response,” he said.

The remarks came a day after the House voted 419-3 for a bill that would levy new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

The bill must pass the US Senate before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

It targets North Korea and Iran over their ballistic missile programs as well as Russia concerning its alleged meddling in the 2016 US elections and the reintegration of the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the sanctions bill “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe.”

Araqchi further said Iran has over the past years faced similar “hostile moves” by the US Congress and government, and that such an approach “is not particular to the current or former governments” in Washington.

The new bill is in fact a “conclusion of previous US sanctions in non-nuclear fields,” he said, adding, however, that it “could affect the successful implementation” of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

As a result, Araqchi said, the draft sanctions law “is incompatible with different clauses of the JCPOA, under which the US is committed to implementing the deal with good will and in a constructive atmosphere.”

The Trump administration only recently certified to Congress for a second time since taking office in January that Iran was complying with the nuclear accord.

Araqchi said that Washington had no other choice, considering that the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed Iran’s compliance with the deal seven times.

He stressed that Iran “will remain patient and make a practical decision proportionate to US measures.”

Russia says sanctions ‘will not go unanswered’

Russia responded angrily to the vote, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov insisting the US had been warned “dozens of times” that any new sanctions would “not go unanswered”.

“The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities for normalizing relations with Russia,” he said.

In a rare feat, the US vote has also managed to upset European Union nations worried that it could damage their energy interests.

The EU warned it was “ready to act to protect European interests” if the legislation hit dealings with the Russian energy sector.

European commissioners, the EU executive’s top officials, “expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill’s possible impact on EU energy independence,” the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on Wednesday.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels worries that the fresh wave of measures could end up penalizing European firms that contribute to the development of Russia’s energy sector.

“Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe,” including those transiting through Ukraine, the EU said in a statement.

Source:iran-daily.com