On Tuesday, Zarif told al-Jazeera that the Israelis’ hue and cry against Iran-P5+1 deal was aimed at diverting international attention from their atrocities against the Palestinians.

He noted that Israel’s concern is not about Iran’s nuclear program but it is worried about further pressures from the international community over its crimes against Palestinians.

"If this deal is to ensure Iran never produces nuclear weapons which is the aim of this deal and it is an aim that we share why should they [Israelis] be worried, other than the fact that they have been trying to use the smoke screen in order to evade and divert international attention from their atrocities against the Palestinians, their daily violations of most basic tenets of international law and the fact that they remain the single most important security threat to this region and to the world," Zarif noted.

Asked if sanctions have really dented Iran's nuclear activities, he said, "When sanctions started Iran had less than 200 centrifuges. Today Iran has 19,000 centrifuges so the net product of the sanctions has been about 18,800 centrifuges that has been added to the Iran's stock of centrifuges, so sanctions have utterly failed."

On November 26, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani hailed the recent landmark interim nuclear deal reached with world powers as the right step in a “long” journey to a comprehensive accord, adding that the deal worked to isolate Israel.

“Everyone is happy about this deal” except “warmongers and that regime, which is an illegitimate one that occupies,” Rouhani said, referring to Israel, which the Iran does not recognize.

NTJ/BA