US should honour nuclear deal if it wants talks: Iran foreign minister

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States will have to observe the 2015 nuclear deal if it wants to meet for talks and that Washington was engaging in “economic terrorism” against Iran.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since US President Donald Trump’s administration last year quit an international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and began to ratchet up sanctions.

“The United States is engaged in an economic war against the Iranian people and it won’t be possible for us to engage with the United States unless they stop imposing a war and engaging in economic terrorism against the Iranian people,” Zarif told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

“So if they want to come back into the room there is a ticket that they need to purchase and that ticket is to observe the agreement,” he said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.