On Saturday, the spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized new US penalties on four Iranian people on what he called "fictitious" claims.

The US Treasury Department said on Friday that it will penalize four Iranian individuals for an alleged unsuccessful plan to abduct a US-Iranian New York-based journalist.

"Unfortunately, incumbent U.S. officials are following the failed policy of the previous administration," Saeed Khatibzadeh, the Iranian spokesman, said according to the ministry's website.

The US story of the so-called plan, according to Khatibzadeh, is a "Hollywood scenario," with sanctions advocates in the US benefiting from the sanctions environment they have established."

Washington had better know that it has no choice but to abandon its sanctioning addiction and to use the language of respect vis-a-vis Tehran," he said.