IRNA - The head of Iranian Space Agency Morteza Barari stressed the absolutely peaceful nature of Iran's space programs and said the US sanctions against the agency will in no way affect their progress and development.

Tuesday night, the US Treasury announced that it had sanctioned Iran's Space Agency, the Iranian Aerospace Research Institute, and the Iranian Aerospace Research Center. The news met many reactions.

Last night, Morteza Barari, the head of Iranian Space Agency, responded to this on his Instagram page, reiterating as several times before that the sanctions would not affect the progress of Iran's space projects.

He said, “Sanction! This is a word that is uttered a lot these days by US statesmen, and they have recently added the Space Agency, Space Research Institute and Aerospace Research Center to their sanctions list."

During all these years that Iran's space programs have made progress with might, despite the fact that we have been fully under the sanctions, the official went on to say.

The head of the Iranian Space Agency underscored that Iranian young scientists with their creative minds and specialized knowledge have been shining in the space arena despite all restrictions. From now on, the US’ measure to impose sanctions against the purely peaceful activities of the Iranian Space Agency will have no impact on the development of these programs, and with the self-confidence that exists in the youth and specialties of Iran, we will move forward with our projects.

Barari reiterated that Iran’s intentions are quite peaceful, and the membership of the Space Agency in the “UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” and our position in international fora illustrates the Iranian approach.

Our goal in developing indigenous space technology is to deliver practical services to the society, optimize resource management and ultimately improve people's quality of life, and we will double our efforts along the way, he said.

Iranian Space Agency in a stance against the US sanctions on three organizations related to Iran space industry said in a statement that the US hostile actions will not disrupt Iran's space programs.

This is a US effort to prevent developing countries and emerging countries from technology breakthroughs in the field of space activities. Obviously, such hostile actions will not interfere with the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran to develop and advance its peaceful space programs, the statement underlined on Wednesday.

The statement went on to say that in continuing its hostile approach towards the Iranian people, the US government has unilaterally sanctioned the Iranian Space Agency, the Iranian Space Research Institute and the Aerospace Research Center in the pursuit of disrupting the peaceful space activities and advancing the country's development goals.

The US Government acknowledged that the Iranian Space Agency's activities are in line with developing telecommunication satellite and remote sensing technology, despite the US unilateral exit from the Iranian nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, the US has done this on the pretext that Iran's peaceful space activities to launch communications and telecommunications satellites violate its commitment in the JCPOA.