BEIJING, January 14. /TASS/. The US’ tariff measures for cooperation with Iran will ultimately exert significant backlash on itself, Zhu Yongbiao, the executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University, said.

"The global economic growth is already sluggish, coupled with the impact of various geopolitical conflicts and US policy uncertainty. By continuously implementing tariff measures, the US is eroding the foundation of global economic growth, which not only brings multiple negative impacts to the global economy but also causes shocks to its own," he was quoted as saying by the Chinese Global Times newspaper.

Washington’s tariff measures could further exacerbate Iran's economic crisis, the expert believes. "Under such context, the tariffs may impact Iran in two ways: directly weakening its external economic ties, exacerbating the economic crisis; indirectly impacting and further undermining its governance structure and system," Zhu said, adding that tariffs could cause fluctuations in energy prices, negatively impact American allies, and increase economic costs for EU countries.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all countries doing business with Iran. This followed a wave of protests in the Islamic Republic, which blamed the US and Israel for the unrest. The White House leader did not rule out the use of force against Tehran. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning has said that Beijing is against interference in Iran's domestic politics and will resolutely defend its interests if those tariffs are applied to China.