MOSCOW: New US sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile programme are unfounded, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday, the RIA news agency reported.

Washington slapped new economic sanctions against Iran on Tuesday over its ballistic missile programme, saying Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East had undercut any "positive contributions" coming from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.

RIA also cited Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the Foreign Ministry's department for non-proliferation and arms control, as saying that the United States was fulfilling its own part of the Iran nuclear deal "very badly."