Iranian President Hassan Rouhani considered the US sanctions against Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to be ‘childish’, Reuters reported. 

“They (Americans) are resorting to childish behavior... They were claiming every day ‘We want to talk, with no preconditions’ ...and then they sanction the foreign minister,” Rouhani said. “A country which believes it’s powerful and a world superpower is afraid of our foreign minister’s interviews. When Dr Zarif gives an interview in New York, ... they (Americans) say Iran’s foreign minister is misleading our public opinion What happened to your claims of liberty, freedom of expression and democracy? The pillars of the White House are made to tremble by the words and the logic of a knowledgeable and self-sacrificing man and diplomat.”

US authorities added Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on their sanctions list. A senior US administration official said that Washington no longer considers Zarif a priority contact - he was such during the discussion of the nuclear deal from which the US withdrew. Zarif, in turn, noted that the US imposed sanctions against him because they considered him a threat to the US agenda.

Iran announced on May 8 that it had ceased to implement a number of Iranian deal clauses. Subsequently, the Iranian authorities announced the second stage of reducing the obligations of the nuclear deal due to the fact that the member states of the deal were unable to fulfill Tehran’s requirements within 60 days. Iran has already increased the level of uranium enrichment to 4.5%.

They are preparing for the third stage of the reduction of their obligations.