IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister says nice statements by Europeans do not provide economic benefit for Iranians.

Zarif made the remarks in reference to UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jeremy Hunt's remarks about existence of small window for saving JCPOA:

"I think he [Jeremy Hunt] is right but it requires committed determination on all sides to save this deal Iran has implemented its part of the deal and it is necessary for the rest of the world particularly for the three Europeans to also take action," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with BBC Hard Talk.

"They made very nice statements but statements do not provide economic benefit for Iran."

"We believe that this deal is in the interest of the international community including the United States it doesn’t matter whether the previous administration in the united states negotiated this deal this is a deal which was negotiated by the United States because as you know in the international community you don’t recognize this or the other government," he noted.

"You recognize a country and the government of that country and we did negotiate it with the government of the United States, Zarif reiterated urging the US administration to abide by its commitments.

"I believe that it is for President Trump the best deal possible I believe President Trump is being advised by people who are not interested in promoting peace but interested in advancing an agenda that they have had," he said.

"I believe it is important to make that statement but at the same time it is important to basically invest in what Europeans believe is a security document for them and is a security agreement for them."

"You cannot make any gains without basically making the necessary investment and I think that is what lacking."

Stressing Iran full compliance with the deal, Zarif said: "We have invested in the nuclear deal more than talking we have done things on the ground the Europeans are not prepared to do things on the ground they are willing to make statements like purchasing our oil.

Urging all sides to stand against US illegal and unlawful pressures, Zarif said "If the Europeans, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians try all of them did not allow the United States to bully them into abiding by its decisions would the United States be able to destroy the global economy and put sanctions on all of them?"

"The Europeans and the rest of the global community are strong enough to withstand this, " he reiterated.

For much of the interview Iranian foreign minister referred to what was initiated by the European states as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), he said: "There is no need to try to circumvent it but if they want to circumvent it through INSTEX, we have to see whether there is any actual benefit for the Iranians people."

Highlighting in inhumane nature of US unilateral sanctions, Zarif said: "You see people are dying from cancer, kids are dying from EB, people are dying from MS just because there are very limited areas of pharmaceuticals that we cannot produce in Iran."

"The United States says that they are exempted from sanctions but financial transactions in order to purchase them are not exempted of course the Americans say that they are exempted but they are not exempted," he noted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Iranian top diplomat referred to Iran 60-day moratorium to Europeans as regard reducing its commitment under the nuclear deal, he said: "We have not given them any ultimatum what we did was for an entire year they asked us for fewer weeks."

He added: "Then we started based on the agreement not outside the agreement the United States as you know walked out of the agreement but we used the mechanism within the agreement in order to show them that they need to come back to the agreement and implement it."

"We are not giving anybody any ultimatum," Zarif reiterated.

He emphasized that Iran is just implementing what it told them very transparently that these would be the steps that we would take.

"We implemented the agreement fully, IAEA made 15 reports from the beginning five of them after the US withdrawal and all of them indicated that Iran is fulfilling its commitment fully."

"Unfortunately the Europeans could not take advantage of this and just dragged their feet it won't happen again."

"Iran is a country with an old civilization, for us the dignity of our people is extremely important."

When the BBC reporter said that Europeans had that stressed partial agreement is not acceptable, Zarif said: "The Europeans cannot say partial or full compliance whether it is acceptable or not it is the deal itself."

"Paragraph 36 of the deal says that Iran or the other sides if we are not satisfying with the implementation of the deal by the other side we can take some measures within the deal that is to keep the deal surviving to keep it from totally dead," he noted.

He underlined that fact that Iran nuclear deal was written based on total mistrust, saying: "Neither side trusted the other side that is why we put things in black and white very clearly stated that we do not comply what they can take if we are the initial breaker of the deal they can take measures."

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif landed in New York on Sunday to take part in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC)’s annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) started on July 9 and will come to an end on July 18. There will be ministerial meetings in the last three days.

Zarif is also scheduled to visit Venezuela to participate in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) foreign ministers' meeting.

The bilateral meetings with Venezuelan officials are on the agenda of Zarif's visit to Caracas.

Zarif will then travel to South America to hold bilateral meetings with officials of Nicaragua and Bolivia.