TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said that the imposition of new sanctions on top Iranian officials by the U.S. is synonymous with “permanent closure of the path to diplomacy”.

“The (imposition of) futile U.S. sanctions against Iran’s Leader and the commander of Iran’s diplomacy (Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif) means the permanent closure of the path to diplomacy with the desperate U.S. administration,” Mousavi tweeted on Monday.

“The Trump administration is violating all established international mechanisms for maintaining global peace and security,” he added.

His comments came after Trump announced new sanctions against top Iranian officials, including the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The U.S. had already blacklisted the entire IRGC.

Trump said that the sanctions were in part a response to the shooting down of a U.S. drone on Thursday, but would have happened anyway.

The IRGC shot down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone on Thursday morning after it breached Iran’s airspace. The IRGC brought the drone down by firing a surface-to-air missile at it.

Zarif said that the U.S. military drone entered the Iranian airspace from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and it was targeted near Kouh-e Mobarak. 

To prove that the drone violated Iran’s space, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ aerospace unit put the wreckage of the drone on display on Friday. 

Iran and the U.S. have been at odds since last year when Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

NA/PA