MOSCOW (TASS) — Washington’s sanctions against Iran’s supreme leadership signal that events are unfolding under a very bad scenario, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.

Lavrov stressed:

We are concerned about what is happening. Another round of sanctions, very personal sanctions, which were announced yesterday by US President Donald Trump’s administration against Iran’s supreme leadership are alarming and sending a signal that the situation is unfolding under a very bad scenario.

According to Lavrov, this situation is reminiscent of the events in 2003, when then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived at the UN Security Council waving his notorious vial, claiming that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and when the US slapped a string of sanctions on then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Iraq as a whole:

All of us know the result. In May [2003], the US declared victory of democracy in Iraq. Draw your conclusion on how this democracy has demonstrated itself over the 16 past years.

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he had signed an executive order to slap new harsher sanctions on Iran. The restrictive measures are imposed, among others, on the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In addition, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that later this week Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif would also be placed on Washington’s blacklist. The sanctions also targeted eight senior commanders of the Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including a general responsible for destroying a US spy drone on June 20.