Iran slams new US sanctions, responds with its own

Iran slammed the latest round of US sanctions on its ballistic missile programme on Tuesday, responding with its own sanctions against Americans, official news agency IRNA reported.

The foreign ministry condemned "the United States' worthless act of imposing illegal sanctions" against people linked to the programme, IRNA reported.

Tehran "will in turn apply new sanctions against American people and entities that have acted against the Iranian people and other Muslim peoples of the region," it said.

The sanctions include people linked to the country's missile programme and others close to the elite Revolutionary Guard.

"The Americans... want to weaken the capabilities and strength of the Islamic regime," said General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guard's aerospace wing and missile programme, quoted by state TV.

"We propose reciprocal actions with a high cost," he added.

The comments came after the State Department announced new sanctions against 18 individuals and entities in Iran, despite the White House admitting the Islamic republic was complying with a landmark 2015 nuclear deal just hours earlier.

"The conditions," according to one official who the White House would not name publicly, "have been met, based on information available to the United States."

The 2015 agreement rests on a series of technical benchmarks, and was seen in Washington as a way of avoiding military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuke.

But it has not relieved tensions between Tehran and Washington, which continue to clash particularly over conflicts in the Middle East like Syria and Yemen, where Iran-backed fighters hold clout.

During his election campaign Trump denounced the deal reached under former president Barack Obama and promised to renegotiate it and get tough on Iran.

But Trump has now twice affirmed Iran's compliance since taking office, effectively keeping the deal in place.