TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian official on Tuesday night slammed sanctions freshly imposed by the United States on Iranian governmental agencies and officials.
"Even amid #ViennaTalks, the U.S. cannot stop imposing sanctions against Iran," Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, wrote on his personal Twitter account shortly before midnight.
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was freezing assets and banning U.S. nationals from engaging in business with agencies and individuals from several countries, on grounds of alleged "repression and the undermining of democracy."
Among those sanctioned by Washington are the special units of Iran's police, including its counter-terrorism force, two state prisons, and a number of officials and military commanders.
In his reaction, the foreign ministry spokesman wrote that the United States "fails to understand that 'maximum failure' & a diplomatic breakthrough are mutually exclusive."
The new sanctions, Khatibzadeh added, will not strengthen Washington's negotiating position in the process of reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The Vienna talks, which restarted on Nov. 29 to revive JCPOA after a months-long hiatus, are scheduled to continue on Thursday.
