Tehran, Dec 13 (IANS): The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has slammed the US claims of supporting Iranian women, saying they have been equally impacted by Washington's long-term unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

Women had not been excluded from the US unilateral sanctions imposed against Iran over the past decades, Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted Nasser Kanaani as saying during a press conference on Monday.

US officials have repeatedly announced that the Iranian people are not the target of their sanctions, said Kanaani, adding, "how is it possible to impose over 1,700 or 1,800 sanctions against a country, which is an unprecedented international record in relations among states, and claim that women and children are not affected by them?"

Following its 2018 withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal, the US imposed more than 800 unilateral sanctions against Iran, a move that is totally in contradiction with its "fake" slogans of defending women's rights, he said.

Turning to the nuclear negotiations, the spokesman added they are exclusively aimed at removing the anti-Tehran sanctions, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kanaani said that Iran is ready to continue the nuclear negotiations and has announced its positions on the claims made by the other sides.

However, he stressed that Iran will not be influenced by political pressures aimed at extracting concessions.

Iran has been under the US sanctions for the past four decades. The sanctions intensified following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Tehran and world powers in July 2015.

Under the deal, Tehran had agreed to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The US reimposition of the sanctions prompted Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough had been achieved after the latest round of talks in early August.