Iran quits nuclear talks protesting US blacklist move

[Jesus Malverde]

2. Iran sanctions blacklist: US additions prompt sharp pushback

Iran reacted angrily on Friday to a new US blacklisting of companies and individuals linked to Iran’s nuclear program, saying the measures jeopardize the nuclear agreement reached in Geneva with six world powers last month.

“The [US] move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told Iranian media today. “We are evaluating the situation and Iran will react accordingly to the new sanctions imposed on 19 companies and individuals.”

Both the US and Iran have appeared to interpret the Geneva agreement in different ways, each boosting its own benefits and downplaying its compromises amid skepticism from hard-line constituencies back home.

The deal – an interim breakthrough that came 100 days into the term of Iran’s centrist President Hassan Rouhani – halts advances on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for six months of modest sanctions relief.

Within hours of the Nov. 24 signing, top US officials said existing sanctions would be more “vigorously enforced” and that “Iran is not open for business.” That didn’t prevent a surge of hope in Iran, however, that the Geneva deal will yield the first step in a far broader, eventual easing of sanctions that have hurt the economy in recent years.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2013/1213/Iran-sanctions-blacklist-US-additions-prompt-sharp-pushback