TEHRAN— Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday warned European countries that Iran will respond appropriately if they continue interventionist behavior.

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks hours before the European Union foreign ministers added 11 Iranians and four institutions, including Iran's morality police chief, to a travel ban and asset freeze list for what it called their role in the crackdown on protests after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

"Unanimous decision today to take action against those in #Iran responsible for the death of #MahsaAmini and violent repression of peaceful protests," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted.

Speaking in his weekly presser, Kanaani responded to the recent unrest in Iran, noting that the European countries exercise double standards in dealing with protests in Iran versus those in their own countries.

The diplomat then went on to note that Iran is a “responsible state that respects its citizens’ views and their security” and that Iran has also played an important role in protecting the security of other countries in the region.

“We invite the European parties to be rational and adhere to their slogans. They are talking about Iran, a country that is both powerful and responsible and has played and continues to play a decisive role in the stability and security of the region,” Kanaani stated.

He added that Iran “has always behaved responsibly towards regional and international issues, and is a country that can be the most important partner and collaborator to create peace, stability and security in the region if the European parties act rationally,” Kanaani stated.

He then invited the Europeans to be rational and warned them against adopting unreasonable and interventionist behaviors.

“In all our talks with the Europeans, it has been emphasized that if the European side is ready to interact from the position of mutual respect, Iran is ready to interact and cooperate, but if it adopts interventionist, selective behavior and uses policies rigged with double standards, Iran will show a proportionate and reciprocal reaction. This applies to individual European countries as well as to the position the EU is vowed to take,” he cautioned.

The spokesman added the European countries have a responsibility to protect Iranian embassies, but they did not fulfill their obligation in this regard.

An Iranian school and some Islamic centers being attacked in other countries are among the examples of Europe’s negligence with regard to safeguarding Iranian places, the diplomat enumerated.

On the recent sanctions imposed by the UK on some Iranian officials, Kanaani said that Tehran protested seriously and would respond proportionately.

Vienna talks not removed from our agenda

Asked if Iran considers the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal as dead, the spokesman rejected the hypothesis, highlighting that the problem is the American officials’ contradictory behavior and comments, as they continue to exchange messages while doing things that cannot be considered complementary to the negotiations process.

“It seems that all the technical fields are there to revive the agreement and return all parties to the JCPOA. The negotiation process is on a good track and the technical agreements are good, as they are the basis for the agreement and the conclusion and implementation of the agreement,” the diplomat stated, adding that nevertheless, this issue depends on the political decision of the American government and they can return to the agreement whenever they want.

“Iran has repeatedly announced that it will not wait for the nuclear deal to be restored and will pursue its relations and foreign policy based on the announced policies with all its parties and partners,” Kanaani stated.

Iran has not armed fighting parties in Ukraine war

The diplomat reiterated that Iran had not sent any weapons to any conflicting side in the war between Ukraine and Russia and that Iran objects the war and tries to help stop it.

“Just as the Islamic Republic of Iran opposed the war against Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic is based on opposing war and military solutions for solving political differences. Tehran is against the war in Ukraine and this position is in line with its capacity and good relations between the two countries. Having good relations with both sides of the conflict, Iran has made its own efforts to end the military crisis,” the diplomat noted.

He went on to call claims that Iran has sent drones to Russia “a bitter political irony” made by the countries that export billions of dollars of weapons to one side of the war, and are now accusing another country of sending weapons to the other side of the war.

They are starting a propaganda and psychological war against Iran, the spokesman noted.

U.S. wasn’t ready for prisoner swap

About exchange of prisoners with the U.S., the diplomat said Iran was ready for a prisoner swap agreement and such an agreement was reached before, but the U.S. was not ready to implement it.

“We confirm the reaching of an agreement on the exchange of prisoners and we had already confirmed it before. This agreement was made not in the recent days but long ago, but the American side was not ready to implement the agreement and made the prisoner exchange agreement subject to the agreement to revive the JCPOA,” the spokesman said.