Tehran, Dec 13 (IANS): Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has strongly condemned the new sanctions imposed by the European Council on Iranian individuals and entities based on the "unfounded claim of supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine".

He made the remarks on Tuesday in a statement published on the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website, responding to the decision of the European Council on Monday to impose restrictive measures against "six persons and five entities involved in Iran's development and production of unmanned aerial vehicles" used by Russia in the conflict with Ukraine.

Kanaani said the move aiming to achieve "specific political objectives" will fail and affect the ties between Tehran and Europe, Xinhua news agency reported.

He reaffirmed Iran's principled position of opposing the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the necessity to resolve the differences through peaceful ways.

The spokesman stressed that Iran reserved the right to respond to the EU sanctions.

Ukraine, as well as some Western countries, have accused Iran of exporting suicide drones to Russia for use in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

Iran has repeatedly rejected the accusations as "baseless," saying it had only given "a limited number" of drones to Russia months before the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.