Extension of sanctions will violate 2015 nuclear accord: Iran tells US

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Ankara: Iran on Friday warned the United States against extension sanctions against the Islamic Republic and said that such a move would violate the 2015 nuclear agreement reached with the global powers.

Tehran said it will retaliate against the US Senate's vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for 10 years, Reuters reported.

The US senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution to extend the sanctions, first adopted in 1996, against Iran.

The US officials said that such a move would not interfere in the 2015 deal.

Under the deal, Iran is expected to limit its nuclear work as a precondition for lifting economic sanctions.

However, senior Iranian officials disagree.

The country's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Akbar Salehi described the move as a "clear violation" of the 2015 deal.

"We are closely monitoring the developments," Reuters quoted him as saying in a state television broadcast.

"If they implement the ISA, Iran will take action accordingly," Salehi said.

The extension risks deepening hostilities between Iran and the United States ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who said during his election campaign that he would abandon the deal.

In November, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had already warned that an extension of ISA would be a violation of the accord.