TEHRAN, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the fresh U.S. sanctions targeting the country's senior officials are harmful to diplomacy as a means to settle prickly issues between Tehran and Washington.
New U.S. sanctions prove that Washington is lying about seeking to hold talks with Tehran, according to Press TV.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting sanctions on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his office and those closely affiliated with him. Washington also announced that it will sanction Iran's foreign minister next week.
"Iran's supreme leader is not like those of other countries, who have billions in an account abroad so that you can sanction it, seize it or block it," Rouhani said.
Rouhani added that the new sanctions, which will also target Iranian foreign minister, prove that the United States was "lying" about the offer of talks to Tehran.
"You (Americans) call for negotiations. If you are telling the truth, why are you simultaneously seeking to sanction our foreign minister? It is obvious that you are lying," he said.
Rouhani further pointed to U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian 2015 nuclear deal last year.
He said that it was Washington that disrupted a diplomatic process which has been already underway between the parties within the framework of the deal.
"You, yourself, refused to negotiate, disrupted (the talks), reneged on your promises and annulled your own signature," Rouhani said, referring to Trump.
Besides, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Tuesday that U.S. decision to sanction the Iranian top officials will block the course of diplomacy between Washington and Tehran.
"Imposing useless sanctions on Iran's supreme leader and the commander of Iran's diplomacy (Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif) is the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy with the desperate U.S. administration," Mousavi tweeted.
On Monday, Trump said that he is open to dialogue with Iran without preconditions.
In the relevant remarks, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations also said that the U.S. new sanctions against the Iran's top officials signify Washington's "disrespect" for the international law.
"The U.S. decision today to impose more sanctions against Iran is another indication that the United States does not attach any respect to the international laws and the prevailing international opinion," Majid Takht Ravanchi said in New York on Monday.
Ravanchi dismissed the U.S. calls for dialogue, saying that "no one in clear mind can have a dialogue with somebody who is threatening you with sanctions."
The United States must stop "its economic warfare and terrorism against the Iranian people," he was quoted as saying by the Iranian state TV.
The new sanctions by the United States come in the wake of downing of a U.S. drone by Iran last week. Iran said that the drone had violated its airspace, which the United States denied.
