"We have always defended and followed the policies adopted by the government in confronting the economic sanctions," he stated.
The US President Barack Obama signed into law on Saturday new economic sanctions including an amendment barring foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's Central Bank (CBI) from opening or maintaining correspondent operations in the United States, AP reported.
Referring to the new action taken by the US president, Hojat ul-Islam Pour-Mohammadi said: "On the first day of the new Christian year as spending his holiday, Obama gave a present to the people of the United States, although the new sanctions are supposed to be put into practice 6 months later."
"However due to some resistances against the bill, a number of amendments were made into that which meant for softening the impact of the measure as they pointed out, and the US President has been authorized to lift the ban out of expediency," the head of General Inspectorate added.
"Our first impression is that such measure was taken by Obama for local reasons, actually as the presidential campaign is currently underway in the United States, the candidates are trying to draw the public attention to themselves," The former Interior Minister said.
"The nominees for the US presidential election are making efforts to gain the financial support of Zionist lobbies as well as powerful influential figures. Taking radical stances including those against the Islamic Republic of Iran would be one of these stances. As a matter of fact, they are competing on taking harsher positions against Iran," Pour-Mohammadi added.
If fully executed, the new US bill may obstruct Tehran's ability to sell oil on international markets, as Obama is to discuss with the heads of Western and non-Western countries on imposing new rounds of sanctions without causing a confusion in the international oil market.
Two days after the new US action against Iran, Iran's currency hit a record low against the U.S. dollar on Monday. Iran's Central Bank has called on Iranian experts to meet Wednesday to discuss the turbulence in the currency market.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said earlier his administration will do everything it can to stave off further steep depreciation in the riyal's value, signaling that the government could prop up the currency using its hard currency reserves.
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