IRAN hit out yesterday at new sanctions imposed by Washington soon after several US prisoners had been freed by Tehran.

US President Barack Obama announced new measures on Sunday in response to Iran testing a ballistic missile test in October, in breach of a UN resolution.

The decision came just a day after the US lifted economic sanctions as part of July’s nuclear energy agreement between Iran and the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

The Treasury restrictions forbid 11 Iranian organisations and individuals linked to the missile programme from using the US banking system.

US acting Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin said: “Iran’s ballistic missile programme poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said that the sanctions had “no legal or moral legitimacy.

“Iran’s missile programme has never been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons,” he said.

Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said measures against individuals and companies would have “no effect” on arms development, “and we will actually demonstrate [their ineffectiveness] by displaying new missiles.”

Yesterday, three of six US citizens released by Iran were being evaluated at a US military hospital in Germany.

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, freed along with former US marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini, were said to be in good spirits.

Another US prisoner, Matthew Trevithick, arrived in Boston on Sunday.

Iranian poets Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi, who faced lengthy jail sentences and flogging for blasphemy, said yesterday they had fled to an unnamed country in recent days.

Meanwhile, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Roknoddin Javadi announced plans to increase oil production by 500,000 barrels a day — in an already saturated market.

Brent crude traded at about $28.50 (£20) a barrel after the news broke, a 13-year low that will further harm the economies of Iran’s allies Russia and Venezuela as well as rival Saudi Arabia.

nPakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif flew to Riyadh yesterday to mediate in the ongoing dispute between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.