Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday that he addressed to the 27-nation bloc and the E3 – the European parties to the Iran nuclear deal that are France, Britain and Germany.

“If E3/EU want full implementation of CBMs & enhanced transparency that JCPOA provides, they should reject US Economic Terrorism,” the top diplomat tweeted, Press TV reported.

“Iran rejects nuclear weapons for religious & strategic reasons – far weightier than any ‘deal,’” he said.

The “transparency and confidence-building measures” is part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear deal that Iran signed with the E3, the US, China, and Russia in Vienna in 2015.

As part of the measures, the Islamic Republic undertook voluntary curbs on its nuclear activities.

Tehran was, however, forced to lift the limits that it had accepted under the JCPOA on its nuclear work after the US illegally and unilaterally left the nuclear agreement, returned the sanctions that the deal had lifted, and began threatening others, including the E3, into toeing its sanction line.

The Islamic Republic says the US campaign of economic pressure amounts to “economic terrorism.”

Zarif said the bloc and E3’s potential decision to resist the American terrorism would simulate how “they’ve rejected its vandalism in the #UNSC (United Nations Security Council).”

The majority of the Security Council members, including the European trio, stood up to US attempts over the recent months to prolong an anti-Iran arms embargo – that will expire under the JCPOA on October 18 – and a subsequent US push to return all of the UNSC sanctions against Tehran.

In another tweet on Wednesday night, Zarif had blasted the US for its “hypocritical” opposition to Iran’s nuclear energy and defensive missile programs while spending 100 billion dollars on developing new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

He said, “The US insists Iran must not enjoy peaceful nuclear energy, buy any defense equipment, and build defensive missiles,” while it “spends $100 billion on new nuclear ICBMs, builds secret ‘new’ nukes, and floods regional clients with over $380 billion worth of arms.”

The top Iranian diplomat censured the US approach as “breathtaking hypocrisy.”

US warmongering

Zarif also faulted US President Donald Trump’s apparent differentiation between favorable and unfavorable warfare, denouncing all instances of aggressive military intervention and Washington’s warring and warmongering in West Asia.

During a press conference at the White House, Trump bashed his election rival Joe Biden over sending US “youth to fight in these crazy, endless wars” in the Middle East in his capacity as former US president Barack Obama’s vice president. Trump also lashed out at the Pentagon’s top brass for seeking wars to enrich “those wonderful [weapon-making] companies.”

“We get it. He [Trump] thinks cold war is good for business while hot war is not,” Zarif derisively said in a tweet, adding, “War is bad, period.”

The top diplomat also pointed out the contradiction between Trump’s acknowledging “the US thirst for war to fill the coffers of those wonderful companies” and the US president’s “flogging their ‘beautiful military equipment’ to our region.”