New sanctions aimed to suffocate Iran: Russian official

PanARMENIAN.Net - Any new sanctions against Iran are aimed at “suffocating” the country’s economy, a senior Russian diplomat said after the U.S. House of Representatives approved fresh sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

“We are working on the basis that the [UN] Security Council has already passed several resolutions containing sanctions against Iran,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Thursday, Aug 1, according to RIA Novosti.

“What was done is adequate and sufficient to ensure the non-proliferation of [nuclear] weapons. Any further sanctions are aimed at the economic suffocation of Iran,” Gatilov said.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday imposing new sanctions against the Iranian mining, construction and oil industries. The bill, which aims to curb worldwide consumption of Iranian oil by 1 million barrels per day and end the country’s oil exports by 2015, still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama.

The U.S. vote came despite moderate candidate Hassan Rouhani’s victory at the presidential polls in Iran in June and ahead of Rouhani’s inauguration on Sunday.

International sanctions against Iran are aimed to stop its nuclear program, which Western countries say is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, a charge denied by Tehran.