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Iran pledges to retaliate against new US sanctions

On Tuesday, the US administration blacklisted 18 individuals and entities supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program, Iran’s military purchases or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

TEHRAN, July 19. /TASS/. Iran will retaliate against new US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by the IRNA news agency on Tuesday.

"Despite fulfilling these obligations (under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), the US administration added a number of other Iranian and non-Iranian natural and legal persons to the list of its unilateral and illegal sanctions under the pretext of supporting Iran’s missile program. The Trump administration made the move to compensate for its failure to persuade its European allies into withdrawing from the nuclear deal," the ministry said.

Iran will reciprocate the move by imposing sanctions on a number of American individuals and legal entities "who have taken steps against the Iranian people and other Muslim nations in the region." The names of these individuals will be announced soon.

On Tuesday, the US administration blacklisted 18 individuals and entities supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program, Iran’s military purchases or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators signed a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program on July 14, 2015 in Vienna. Under the deal, Iran undertakes to limit its nuclear activities and allow transparent international control of its nuclear program. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.

In exchange, UN, US and European Union sanctions were to be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed.

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