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Iran's commerce minister on Saturday denied that international sanctions imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear program have damaged Tehran's trade ties and said the penalties will prove futile.

Iran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as well as other penalties by the United States and the European Union over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment — a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or an atomic bomb.

The U.S. and other Western powers accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Commerce Minister Mahdi Ghazanfari called the sanctions "ineffective," and said they "have not affected our trade with other countries so far."

He said that if the sanctions were really having an impact, then the U.N. would not have had to impose four sets of them.

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