Iran's AEOI Dismisses US Sanctions against Chief of Agency

“The unwise move by @realDonaldTrump to impose sanctions on Dr. Salehi and AEOI will not in any way interrupt the peaceful nuclear activities and policies,” the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a post on its unofficial twitter account Friday.

“Such cruel sanctions will further enhance the nuclear scientist motives in neutralizing the hostile U.S policies,” it added.

The US on Thursday announced new sanctions against the director of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and its director, Ali Akbar Salehi, a move that followed by a reaction from Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman who called the new sanctions ineffective on the progress of the country’s nuclear program.

The sanctions freeze any assets that Salehi has within US jurisdiction.

The spokesman, Seyed Abbas Mousavi, also condemned “the unwise move” and said, “It seems that the US regime’s officials have resorted to such clumsy and empty moves against the Iranian nation in a bid to divert the public opinion from domestic developments stemming from Trump’s impeachment as well as the early failure of the so-called Deal of the Century.”

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.

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