The US, Britain and Canada announced new measures against Iran's energy and financial sectors a day earlier and France proposed “unprecedented” new sanctions, including freezing the assets of its central bank and suspending purchases of its oil.
The news pushed benchmark Brent crude above US$107, reflecting concerns about escalating tensions with the world's fifth biggest exporter.
Critics of the sanctions said they would fail to stop Iran's nuclear work and would play into the hands of a government that wears its hostility to Washington as a badge of pride.
“Such measures are condemned by our people and will have no impact and be in vain,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a press briefing on November 22. “They will have no impact on Iran's trade and economic ties with other countries.”
The latest sanctions were prompted by a UN nuclear agency report that suggested Iran had worked on an atomic bomb design.
Iran maintains its work is entirely peaceful and said the report was based on false Western intelligence. The country says new measures aimed at its petrochemicals sector would serve only to push up prices rather than stop its US$8 billion annual exports.
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