MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Russia on Friday dismissed "illegitimate" sanctions imposed by the United States on the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), vowing to continue its cooperation with the Islamic Republic in the banking sector.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had taken action against the CBI, the National Development Fund of Iran (NDF), and Etemad Tejarate Pars Co. under its counterterrorism authority.
It claimed that the CBI had provided billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), its Quds Force and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
Addressing reporters at the White House on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the new sanctions represent the "highest sanctions ever imposed on a foreign country."
After the announcement of the new sanctions, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said Moscow would not be affected by Washington's new punitive measures against Tehran.
"This will not affect our approaches to Iran. As we planned, we will continue to cooperate with Iran in the banking sector. This will have no effect (on Russia's position)," said Zamir Kabulov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Second Asian Department.