TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday that nuclear deal is an “international” deal and commitment to it is in the interest of the U.S. and the other sides.

“I believe it is in the interests of the United States as well as the rest of the international community to respect this multilateral agreement,” Reuters quoted Zarif as saying in a seminar in Tokyo.

The top diplomat noted the multilateral nuclear agreement has been signed into law by approval of the US Security Council and the U.S. cannot violate it unilaterally or seek to renegotiate it.

In July 2015, the Security Council turned the JCPOA into international law by endorsing Resolution 2231, setting the stage for the lifting of the Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Zarif also said that sanctions against Iran had not worked in the past and would accomplish nothing if strengthened, especially since the other treaty partners would be unlikely to buy into them.

Sanctions cannot “break the Iranians’ will”, he added.

On December 1, the U.S. Senate voted the Iran Sanctions Act for another 10 years. The House of Representatives had already approved the move. 

The ISA was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry.

Iran’s top officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, have said if the ISA is implemented it will violate the nuclear deal. Rouhani has asked his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to use his authority to veto the act.

NA/AK