New U.S. sanctions against senior Iranian officials over alleged human rights abuses will further increase tensions between Washington and Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
"This impertinent move is a clear violation of international laws and regulations and shows that the U.S. supports unlawful unrest in Iran," spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.
"This decision is in line with U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Iran over the past 30 years," he added.
The Swiss ambassador to Iran, Livia Leu Agosti, whose country represents the U.S. in the Islamic Republic, also said the U.S. move was illegal.
U.S. President Barack Obama slapped sanctions against eight Iranian officials on Wednesday, accusing them of being involved in human rights abuses during protests over the outcome of Iran's presidential elections in 2009.
Any U.S. assets held by the eight, including Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari and former Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazevi, will be frozen.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tehran in 2009 to protest the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what they said was a rigged vote.
The unrest was violently broken up by the security forces, with hundreds detained and put on trial. Two people were executed, while scores remain behind bars.
Ahmadinejad recently caused international outrage when he claimed at the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. had been "orchestrated" by Washington to "reverse the declining American economy and its grip on the Middle East," as well as to "save the Zionist regime."
Washington and Tehran have been at odds since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, with recent efforts to patch up ties thwarted by Iran's stance on its nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran strongly denies.
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti)
