TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday that Iran responds to diplomacy with diplomacy and responds to pressure with resistance.

His remarks came as a response to comments by Garrett Marquis, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, in which he claimed that Iran has failed to give an appropriate response to what he described as U.S. President Donald Trump’s pursuit of diplomacy on Tehran’s nuclear issue, according to Press TV.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry says: “It seems that diplomacy means sanctions and economic terrorism in the U.S. statesmen’s lexicology!”
Mousavi said, “Iran responds to diplomacy with diplomacy and responds to pressure with resistance. However, it seems that diplomacy means sanctions and economic terrorism in the U.S. statesmen’s lexicology!”

“We have seen nothing but illegal sanctions and war from the U.S.” he added.

Iran and the U.S. have been at odds since last year when Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

The first round of sanctions went into force on August 6 and the second round, which targets Iran’s oil exports and banks, were snapped back on November 4.

Also, on April 22 the U.S. announced that Washington has decided not to extend waivers allowing major importers to continue buying oil from Iran. The waivers ended on May 2.

Trump also announced new sanctions against top Iranian officials, including the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on June 24.

Mousavi said on June 24 that the imposition of new sanctions on top Iranian officials by the U.S. is synonymous with “permanent closure of the path to diplomacy”.

“The (imposition of) futile U.S. sanctions against Iran’s Leader and the commander of Iran’s diplomacy (Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif) means the permanent closure of the path to diplomacy with the desperate U.S. administration,” Mousavi tweeted.

“The Trump administration is violating all established international mechanisms for maintaining global peace and security,” he added.

Zarif has labeled the U.S. sanctions as “economic terrorism”.

Zarif told ABC News in an interview published on June 2 that Iran will not be intimidated by President Trump’s “art of the deal pressure” by using economic sanctions to push Iran to negotiate a new nuclear deal.

He said that “there will be consequences” if the U.S. keeps up its economic pressure campaign against Iran’s people.

“If the objective of President Trump is to impose pressure on normal Iranians, on ordinary Iranians, he is certainly achieving that,” Zarif said. “But he will not achieve his policy objectives through pressure on the Iranians.”

Back in April, President Hassan Rouhani likened Trump to a knifeman with whom Iran will not negotiate.

“Undoubtedly, accepting the demands of a knifeman who through bullying and lying is seeking negotiation will get nowhere,” Rouhani told a cabinet meeting.

Rouhani said Iran has always been seeking negotiation and diplomacy but negotiation is possible only when there is no pressure.

“We have always been the man of dialogue and diplomacy, as we have been the man of war and defense, but negotiation is possible only when all pressures are lifted and they apologize for their illegal measures and there is mutual respect,” Rouhani stated.

NA/PA