Russia Says EU's Iran Energy Sanctions 'Unacceptable'

Russia on Tuesday blasted unilateral European Union sanctions imposed against Iran's energy sector as "unacceptable", saying the move showed a disregard for the UN Security Council.

"We have already said many times that we consider unacceptable the practice of unilateral or collective sanctions measures against Iran, that go beyond the Security Council sanctions regime in operation in the country," the foreign ministry said.

The statement came after EU foreign ministers on Monday formally adopted new sanctions on Iran's key energy sector in a bid to force it to return to talks on its controversial nuclear programme.

Iran is under four sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to heed repeated Security Council ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, the most controversial part of its nuclear programme.

Iran says that it is enriching uranium purely for peaceful use, but Western powers are concerned that it intends to develop a nuclear weapon.

Russia said Tuesday that the EU sanctions showed "disregard for the carefully regulated and coordinated provisions of the UN Security Council."

Both the EU and US sanctions "do not promote finding a speedy political and diplomatic resolution of the problem. For us this is obvious," the ministry said.

Russia "categorically rejects" any attempts to use sanctions against companies and individuals from third countries who are "conscientiously carrying out the demands of UN Security Council resolutions," it said.