Senior Iranian officials have reacted angrily to the decision to extend the sanctions, saying that doing so goes against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the nuclear agreement signed last year between Iran and six world powers.
Last week, Iranian lawmakers threatened to pass legislation to resume the country’s nuclear activities response to Congress extending the sanctions.
There have also been tensions surrounding U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s comments with regards to the Iran deal.
Trump said during his election campaign he would scrap the nuclear agreement, calling the pact "a disaster" and saying it could lead to a "nuclear holocaust".
Zarif, in Japan as part of an Asian tour that included India and China, told a seminar in Tokyo that while the agreement was multilateral and endorsed by the UN Security Council, this did not mean it might not be violated by the United States, which he said had a "less than respectable" history in respecting international laws. READ MORE
