MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Resumption of anti-Iranian sanctions by the US is a destructive step that might bring about destabilization in the Middle East, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.

"Washington’s course at bringing down the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] on the Iranian nuclear program and restoring full-scale pressure through sanctions is absolutely destructive," she said. "There’s scarcely any doubt these steps by the US administration will have long-term deplorable consequences for global nonproliferation [of the weapons of mass destruction] and will impart a destabilizing impulse to the situation in the Middle East."

US President Donald Trump said in May the US was pulling out of JCPOA, signed in January 2016. He also made public the plans to resume the sanctions against Iran lifted after the signing of the agreement and to introduce new ones.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. He said that old sanctions on Iran would be restored and new ones would be imposed.

On August 6, Trump signed the first executive order on a two-stage imposition of anti-Iranian sanctions. The first installment went into effect overnight to Tuesday, November 7, embracing the car-manufacturing sector and the exports/imports of gold and some other metals, among other things.

The second installment is expected to take effect on November 5.