Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said that Moscow will continue cooperation with Iran, including in the nuclear field, despite the U.S. sanctions.

“No threat of new sanctions will stop our legitimate and mutually beneficial cooperation with Iran. We have been living under U.S. anti-Russia sanctions since 2012. It is clear that over this period there has been a serious adaptation to this illegal trick by the United States,” he told Sputnik on Saturday.

Iran has an even bigger experience on how to live under the U.S. sanctions, he added.

“Therefore, we perceive threats of this kind calmly, we do not succumb to blackmail and we will systematically expand and develop our cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, including in the atomic energy sector in full compliance with international law and the national legislation of our countries, regardless of what U.S. colleagues are undertaking, realizing, as they believe, their right to the extraterritorial application of their national legislation,” Ryabkov stated.

The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that Washington will not renew two of sanctions waivers which allowed Russia and the European nations to do business with Tehran. One of the two waivers allowed Iran to store excess heavy water produced in the uranium enrichment process in Oman. The other one allowed Iran to swap enriched uranium for raw yellowcake with Russia.

The new sanctions measures, which are in line with Washington’s “maximum pressure” on Iran, came days after the U.S. ended sanctions waivers for the remaining importers of the Iranian crude oil.

Iran reached a deal with Russia on the first stage of the Bushehr project — the Bushehr 1 — in 1992. In 2014, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to build the second and third reactors for the Bushehr plant.

NA/PA