The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius yesterday announced that the European Union will discuss during the course of this week “whether there is a need to impose new sanctions” on Iran after ballistic missile tests were carried out.

This statement came a day after the US Department of the Treasury’s decision to impose economic sanctions on 11 companies and 5 individuals associated with the Iranian missile program and that are listed on the black list.

The economic sanctions on Iran are a result of its ballistic missile testing which violates the “nuclear agreement” that Iran concluded with the P5+1 group and that came into effect the day before yesterday.

In a tone that challenged the US measures against the Iranian missile programme, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Hussein Jaber Al-Ansari yesterday said that the new American sanctions are “illegal” and warned that Iran will “respond to these acts of propaganda by speeding up its ballistic programme and increasing its defence capabilities”.

Fabius also stressed in a statement given in Abu Dhabi where he is participating in the World Future Energy Summit the need for the international community to be “alert” to ensure that Iran fulfils its obligations under the nuclear deal.

With regards to the economy, the oil market contradicted the expectations of analysts who were expecting a fall in prices after the decision of the US and the EU to lift the ban on the export of Iranian oil. The price at the end of trading yesterday was similar to that on Friday at $29.