Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said here Monday that the Islamic republic will keep up with its missile program despite new U.S. sanctions.
The United States announced on Sunday new sanctions relating to Iran's ballistic missile program, a day after the Obama administration lifted sanctions on Iran's nuclear program.
Six Iranian nationals and 11 companies were added to a blacklist, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
"Iran will respond to such (U.S.) acts of propaganda and harassment by seriously continuing its missile program and enhancing its defensive capabilities and national security," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said at his weekly press briefing.
The fresh sanctions against Iran under the pretext of the country's missile and deterrence program "lacks a legal and moral legitimacy," since the United States is the seller of the advanced weapons to some regional countries, which have been used against the Palestinians, Lebanese and the people of Yemen, he said.
"The Iranian missiles have never been designed for carrying the nuclear weapons and does not go counter to any international principles," Ansari stressed.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the U.S. will impose further sanctions if Tehran continues missile program implementation.
On Saturday, Obama signed an executive order to lift sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program, the White House said.
"Iran's implementation of the nuclear-related measures..., as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), marks a fundamental shift in circumstances with respect to Iran's nuclear program," Obama said in the executive order issued by the White House.
Obama's decision came after the IAEA confirmed Iran's compliance of the historic nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, reached last summer.
