TEHRAN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian senior officials on Friday condemned the U.S. fresh sanctions on 18 Iranian banks and financial institutions.

The U.S. new sanctions are "cruel" and "inhumane," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.

Washington would be unable to crush the Iranian nation's resistance through such measures, Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

"Everyone is witnessing that Washington's move is in full violation of the international law; and in these times of the coronavirus pandemic, the White House's attitude is completely against humanity," said Rouhani.

Such "fruitless" moves by Washington come against the backdrop of a strategic blunder by President Donald Trump who withdrew from the multilateral Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he said.

The U.S. administration had thought that sanctions would break the Iranian nation's resistance and cause problems for the country, but it was later proved that Washington's anti-Iran policy has been "inefficient" in practice, he added.

On Thursday, the U.S. administration blacklisted 18 Iranian state and non-state banks and financial sectors which have so far remained intact by previous U.S. sanctions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that the designation of Iranian banks "reflects our commitment to stop illicit access to U.S. dollars."

A number of Iran's financial sectors, including its central bank, have already been sanctioned by the United States.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also refuted U.S. fresh sanctions, saying that Washington wants to "blow up our remaining channels to pay for food and medicine."

"Iranians will survive this latest of cruelties. But conspiring to starve a population is a crime against humanity," said Zarif according to Tasnim news agency on Friday.

In May 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA and re-imposed anti-Iran sanctions which had been lifted under the agreement. Since then, the U.S. administration has incessantly mounted pressures against Iran in an attempt to force the Islamic republic to the negotiation table for a new accord over Tehran's nuclear program and its ballistic missile activities.

In response, Iran has gradually reduced its commitments to the JCPOA and vowed to not negotiate over the U.S.-propelled topics.