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Iran Defies US Sanctions, Rules Out Halt to Missile Tests | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A file photo shows a ballistic missile launched and tested at an undisclosed location in Iran. REUTERS/Mahmood Hosseini/TIMA


A defiant Iran vowed on Saturday to press ahead with its missile program and condemned new sanctions passed by the US Congress.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state broadcaster IRIB that Tehran condemned new US sanctions against its missile program, which President Donald Trump is set to sign into law, and vowed to press on.

“We will continue with full power our missile program,” he said. “We consider the action by the US as hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable, and it’s ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal” that was truck in 2015 between Tehran and US-led world powers that lifted some sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on the country’s nuclear program.

“The military and missile fields… are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them,” the spokesman said.

The sanctions bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the US Senate on Thursday, two days after being approved by the House of Representatives.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Friday that President Donald Trump will sign the bill into law.

Separately on Friday, Washington imposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s missile program a day after Tehran tested a satellite-launch rocket.

The US Treasury singled out six companies owned or controlled by Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which it said was central to the program, freezing their US assets and barring US citizens from dealing with them.