Tasnim � Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi dismissed the US sanctions against members of Iran�s Guardian Council as a sign of failure of the US policy of maximum pressure.

In a statement on Friday, Mousavi denounced a new round of sanctions that the US Treasury Department has imposed on the Iranian individuals, particularly on a number of members of the Guardian Council of the Iranian Constitution.

�Such measures are nothing but the failure, frustration and defeat of the US regime�s policy of maximum pressure. Those who have put more than 83 million Iranians under sanctions, economic terrorism and their maximum pressures and have achieved no results have now targeted the institution of elections in Iran in deep despair and frustration, and it shows how afraid they are of democracy and popular partnership in Iran,� the spokesman said.

Mousavi further told the US officials, �The government, the nation and all pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran do not place any value on you or on your lunatic and cowardly sanctions, and will formidably continue their path to a bright future.�

�Iran�s strategy against maximum pressure is maximum resistance, and this is the Americans who will ultimately bow to the Iranian nation�s resolve, and will learn that they must speak to and treat such glorious and resistant people with the language of respect, not the language of sanctions,� Mousavi concluded.

His comments came after US President Donald Trump�s administration on Thursday announced sanctions against five Iranian officials in the Guardian Council.

The sanctions were announced a day before Iran�s parliamentary elections.

The Guardian Council is a constitutionally mandated 12-member council in Iran that, among other things, is tasked with ensuring the compatibility of the legislation passed by the parliament with the criteria of Islam and the Constitution.