Iran to carry on with missile program despite US sanctions: spokesman

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said here Monday that the Islamic republic will keep up with its missile program despite new US sanctions.

The United States announced on Sunday new sanctions relating to Iran's ballistic missile program, a day after the Obama administration lifted sanctions on Iran's nuclear program.

Six Iranian nationals and 11 companies were added to a blacklist, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Iran will respond to such (US) acts of propaganda and harassment by seriously continuing its missile program and enhancing its defensive capabilities and national security," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said at his weekly press briefing.

The fresh sanctions against Iran under the pretext of the country's missile and deterrence program "lacks a legal and moral legitimacy," since the United States is the seller of the advanced weapons to some regional countries, which have been used against the Palestinians, Lebanese and the people of Yemen, he said.

"The Iranian missiles have never been designed for carrying the nuclear weapons and does not go counter to any international principles," Ansari stressed.

US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the US will impose further sanctions if Tehran continues missile program implementation...
  Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
  18/1/16
--
-
Related:

• Iran angered by new U.S. sanctions on missiles 

• US imposes new sanctions over Long-range Missile test

• Iranian Missiles Only Threaten Saudi Arabia, Not the US

• Iran Rejects UN Restrictions On Its Missile Tests