TEHRAN- Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson has emphasized the ineffectiveness of threats and sanctions against Tehran and urged Britain and France to pressure the U.S. into making the required moves to revive the 2015 agreement rather than supporting the party who is accountable for the deal's precarious state.

“Instead of standing alongside the culprit for current situation of JCPOA, UK & France need to press their ally to take needed decisions for a lasting & strong agreement,” Nasser Kanaani said on his Twitter account on Tuesday. 

Earlier, Kanaani had criticized the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Iran's oil shipments, asserting that they demonstrate Washington's "pseudo-sympathy" for those who have just suffered from flash floods around the country. He also underscored the failure of threats and sanctions in the past.

The spokesperson’s tweet came a day after the U.S. Treasury and State departments placed sanctions on three Hong Kong-based trade firms, one company from the United Arab Emirates, and two shipping companies, one in Singapore and the other in Qingdao, China.

The U.S. said that the companies had assisted Iran in selling petrochemical and oil goods worth tens of millions of dollars to nations in East Asia.

Despite Tehran's full compliance with the nuclear agreement, former U.S. president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from it in May 2018. He then started the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

While President Joe Biden's administration had expressed a willingness to reverse Trump's failed policy toward Tehran and rejoin the ailing deal, it has continued to use the anti-Iran sanctions as leverage ever since negotiations to bring the U.S. back into the JCPOA began last year in Vienna, Austria.

Tehran, however, is adamant that before it reverses the remedial measures it has implemented in reaction to the U.S. pullout and maximum pressure strategy, all sanctions must be lifted in a verifiable way.