TEHRAN - Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Hossein-Ali Amiri said on Saturday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is “the Iranian people’s voice” and sanctioning him shows Washington’s weakness.

“Sanctioning the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the U.S. indicates that all the enemy’s plots have been foiled. And the U.S. does not intend to sanction Zarif but does not want the world hear the Iranian people’s voice,” he told reporters.

In separate statements on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury and State Department announced imposition of sanctions against Zarif, a move which was interpreted as a total rejection of diplomacy repeatedly claimed by the Trump administration.

NA/PA