The Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced Friday that it sees as illegitimate and described as an act of desperation the attempts by the United States to impose new unilateral coercive measures on it and considers that they are the continuation of the defeated policy of maximum pressure of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
In these terms, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Said Jatibzade, also condemned the measures announced on Thursday by the U.S. Treasury Department.
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The said agency accuses the sanctioned Iranian citizens and entity of allegedly trying to intervene in the 2020 presidential elections.
According to Washington, the alleged Iranian meddling would have taken place through a computer operation with the aim, they claim, of undermining confidence in the U.S. electoral system.
However, Jatibzade called the Treasury's accusation unfounded and said it was a desperate attempt by a country that itself has a history of interfering in the internal affairs of other nations and is aimed at manipulating U.S. public opinion.
"Regarding the new US sanctions against 6 individuals and one Iranian institution under the false pretext of interfering in the US elections: Iran condemns the new US sanctions efforts in continuation of the failed policy of Trump's maximum pressure and actions that are desperate and illegitimate."
Iran has repeatedly rejected Washington's accusations linking Tehran to attempts to meddle in the 2020 U.S. elections, in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican rival Donald Trump.
During those elections, Iranian officials made it very clear that, for Tehran, it did not matter who won the election, whether Trump or Biden.
The new unilateral coercive measures are imposed a few days before the resumption of the seventh round of talks in Vienna (Austria) between Iran and the 4+1 Group, composed of the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia, plus Germany, in order to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, abandoned by the U.S. three years ago.