Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States should take advantage of the opportunity created by the recent nuclear deal between Iran and major powers to change a foreign policy of "threats of coercion" and gain the confidence of the Iranian people.
"It would be best to use this historic opportunity to win the valuable trust of the Iranian nation," Zarif said on Thursday in response to remarks by US President Barack Obama at American University in Washington the previous day.
"The use of threats of coercion as a foreign policy will produce no result than damaging US reputation and wasting US resources," IRNA quoted the top diplomat as saying.
Iran and the P5+1 (the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China) reached an agreement on July 14 after over about 20 months of negotiations aimed at removing sanctions against Iran in exchange for temporary constraints on its nuclear program.
Obama, addressing US lawmakers opposing the deal, said that "alternatives to military actions will have been exhausted once we reject a hard-won diplomatic solution that the world almost unanimously supports."
Blocking the deal would accelerate Tehran's path to an alleged nuclear bomb and severely damage the US credibility, Reuters quoted him as saying.
Iran has always denied accusations its nuclear program may go beyond energy projects and medical research to produce nuclear weapons.
Zarif said Iran will not change its policies in the Middle East because of the nuclear deal, echoing comments made by top authorities, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue supporting its friends and regional allies against common threats and has repeatedly announced its readiness to cooperate... in restoring peace in the region and the world."
