AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iran says it reserves the right to take action to respond in kind to the "unacceptable" approach taken by the United States and Britain after they announced a raft of new sanctions targeting the IRGC.
Britain on Thursday said it had adopted fresh sanctions against the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, five IRGC forces, Khaled Qadoumi, the representative of Hamas in Iran; Nasser Abu Sharif, representative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Iran and the Palestinian branch of the Quds Force.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the travel bans and asset freezes were coordinated with Washington.
The US, which had already put sanctions on the seven individuals targeted by London, blacklisted one more person, Majid Zarei, whom it claimed supported the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah Resistance movement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani on Friday condemned the new sanctions in the strongest terms. He said leveling "absurd and worthless" accusations against the anti-terror IRGC Quds Force and its brave commanders has so far failed to bring any change in the regional equations in favor of the two countries and will only lead to more disgrace for the warmongers.
Iran's "official and legal" Armed Forces, including the IRGC Quds Force, will always remain the "nightmare of terrorist groups and their supporting regimes," he said.
The Iranian official expressed confidence that such desperate efforts which contravene international regulations would never disrupt the resolve of the Iranian Armed Forces to defend the country and fight terrorism and global arrogance.
Kan'ani said the hostile move by Washington and London was yet another step in completing the spiteful attitude toward the Iranian nation and the Islamic Revolution, which has been pursued over many decades in various forms.
The Iranian spokesman said Washington and London leveled allegations against the anti-terror IRGC forces in a worthless effort to deviate the world public opinion and cover their absolute responsibility in Israel's savagery against the Palestinian people in Gaza as the regime has killed nearly 20,000 civilians in more than two months "in full support of the US and Britain."
For decades, Iran has been the target of the most severe economic and financial sanctions of the United States and its allies, directly endangering the lives of Iran's most vulnerable population, including children, the elderly, and patients.
Unilateral coercive measures are employed by certain states as a method of war to starve innocent civilians, which violates the UN Charter and international law.
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