“Europeans are not in a position to criticize” Iran for issues outside the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Iran’s foreign minister was quoted by state media as saying on June 9.

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“The Europeans and other signatories of the JCPOA should normalize economic ties with Iran…We will halt our commitments or will take action in accordance with their measures,” he said.

Zarif’s comment comes as German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is planning to visit Iran to explore options for preserving a nuclear nonproliferation pact.

The West European signatories to the deal — France, Britain, and Germany — have been trying to salvage the agreement despite the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord last year.

Commenting on the deadline Iran set on the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Zarif said, “It is a matter of Islamic Republic of Iran’s plan. We announced our plan by saying that we would do so during the first 60 days, and will take other measures within the next 60 days, and then the following steps will be decided.”

“We will decide proportionate to what they do,” he said.

The Iranian foreign minister also noted that the shuttle diplomacy, the upcoming visits, including that of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to Tehran as well as that of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Kyrgyzstan and Dushanbe, are opportunities for Iran to clarify its policies and finding solutions for confronting the policies that have targeted the entire world.

Zarif added yesterday that the U.S. maximum pressure indicates desperation of the White House, affirming that Tehran will overcome the maximum pressure.

The Iranian top diplomat made the remarks at an event titled ‘My Mission’ at the prestigious high school Allameh Helli in Tehran.

“Today, we are not in a weak position. Rather, we have the upper hand. The U.S. has made big mistakes, and has felt that it is in a weak position with its accomplices in the region. In Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, it didn’t reach its goals because people and the resistance movement didn’t accept the US policies,” he said.

Iran has not aligned with Daesh (terrorist group of ISIS), al-Nusra, the Zionist regime and those who are killing the Yemeni children, he said adding that the right decisions by the country has made it a factor in the global and regional ‘equation’.

The U.S. power is based on its dollar, so if the countries exclude the currency from their economic system, much of the power will decline, the Iranian top diplomat said in reference to the decision of Moscow and Beijing to remove dollar from their bilateral trade.