Tehran: Iran on Monday denounced ‘illegitimate’ new sanctions by the United States on its ballistic missile programme, days after Tehran’s historic nuclear deal with world powers was confirmed.

‘Iran’s missile programme has never been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons,’ foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said, according to the ISNA news agency. 

He added that Tehran saw fresh economic sanctions as ‘illegitimate’.

The United States announced new penalties Sunday related to Iran’s ballistic missile programme after the lifting of punishing measures aimed at its atomic activities as the deal with world powers was confirmed in Vienna.

Five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury announced.

‘As previously announced, the Islamic republic of Iran... responds with determination to such propaganda by accelerating its legal ballistic missile programme and boosting defence capabilities,’ Ansari said.