Iran, Russia blast new Western sanctions on Tehran

The UN Security Council has raised concerns regarding Iran's nuclear programme Iran and its powerful ally Russia on Tuesday slammed new Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its suspect nuclear programme, saying they were illegal and futile.The unilateral measures against Iran's financial, petrochemical and energy sectors announced Monday by the United States, Britain and Canada amounted merely to "propaganda and psychological warfare," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
They were "reprehensible" and would prove ineffective, he said.
Russia - which with China had blocked any possibility of the Western steps going before the U.N. Security Council for approval -- took a sterner view, saying in a foreign ministry statement the sanctions were "unacceptable and against international law."
The declarations set the stage for a hardening of diplomacy over Iran and its nuclear programme. The issue has already generated speculation that Israel is mulling air strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.
The United States and its allies cited a November 8 report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency asserting "credible" evidence of Iranian research programmes for nuclear weapons as justification for their new sanctions.
"As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime," US President Barack Obama said in a written statement as the sanctions were unveiled.
Iran, which has dismissed the IAEA report as "baseless" and biased, insists its nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful, civilian purposes.
The country is already subject to four sets of U.N. sanctions designed to force it to give up uranium enrichment, along with additional, unilateral sanctions by the United States and the European Union.
The latest sanctions put more pressure on Iran's financial sector, with the United States and Britain invoking anti-terrorist laws to target Iran's central bank and other financial institutions.
Washington has declared Iran of "primary money-laundering concern" -- a label that could dissuade non-U.S. banks and businesses dealing with it under threat of U.S. reprisals.
London said it was "ceasing all contact" between its financial system and that of Iran.
Canada said it was halting "virtually all transactions" with Iran.
France said it, too, was "in favour of new unprecedented sanctions."
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mehmanparast said the sanctions "show the hostility of these countries towards our people."
But he predicted they would be fruitless because trade with the United States and Britain was already at a minimum.
"With these resolutions.... they think they can pressure our people to give up their rights (to nuclear energy). But they're wrong," Mehmanparast said.
Russia's foreign ministry said the Western step "seriously complicates moves for constructive dialogue with Tehran."
It accused the United States and its allies of going too far.
"We believe that the constant strengthening of sanctions has long ago gone beyond the bounds of decisions on non-proliferation tasks surrounding the Iranian nuclear programme," it said in its statement.
An Iranian parliamentary commission on national security and foreign policy was Tuesday to review cooperation with the IAEA.
Officials, however, have already said Iran will maintain ties with the U.N. atomic energy watchdog.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday his country would even cooperate "further" with the IAEA if it "balances its approach" to the Islamic republic.
Iran's trade and industry minister, Mehdi Ghazanfari, on Monday contradicted the foreign ministry's evaluation that the new sanctions would prove ineffective, admitting rather that his country would "suffer".
But he asserted that Iran would survive by becoming more self-reliant, and by doing business with other "competing countries."
China, in particular, is a major buyer of Iranian oil and a key investor that has stepped in to sign energy contracts left available by departing European companies.
Iran's economy, worth an estimated $480 billion according to the International Monetary Fund, is highly dependent on oil sales, which make up around 70 percent of government revenues. The country is the second-biggest producer in OPEC, after Saudi Arabia.
The sanctions announced Monday aim to tighten the noose on Iran's financial sector, making it more difficult for the country to be paid for its oil.
They stopped short, however, of hitting the central bank with more draconian measures, which Western officials and analysts feared could cause a spike in oil prices, worsening the global economic downturn and providing Iran with a revenue windfall.