TEHRAN - Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday that Iranians will succeed to offset the current U.S. policy of maximum pressure as they have done so over the past four decades, noting that Tehran’s strategy of resistance will go on till Washington learns to speak with language of respect with the Iranian nation.

Mousavi’s remarks came in response to an earlier tweet by U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus who had said that Washington is increasing maximum pressure by imposing bans on construction sector in Iran.

“Your maximum pressure will be neutralized with our maximum resistance, discretion and hope,” Mousavi said in response to Ortagus.

He added, “Like the past four decades, we will honorably pass this difficult stage until you learn to speak respectfully with Iranians and return to your obligations (under the nuclear agreement.”
  
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said that U.S. sanctions on his country's construction sector was a vivid demonstration of Washington’s “maximum failure” in its maximum pressure policy against Tehran.

"Subjecting construction workers to Economic Terrorism only manifests maximum failure of 'maximum pressure'," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.

He once again reiterated the Iranian people's determination to stand firm in the face of Washington's behavior. "U.S. can sanction every man, woman and child but Iranians will never submit to bullying."

The top diplomat called on the United States to abandon failed policies and return to the landmark nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the 5+1, instead of digging itself deeper.

The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on Iran's construction sector despite Washington's announcement a week ago that it had created a new mechanism to facilitate "permissible trade" with Tehran.

The U.S. State Department issued a fact sheet, singling out the sale of software used for industrial purposes, raw and semi-finished metals, graphite and coal used in Iran's construction sector as targets for the new sanctions.

Also on Thursday, the State Department announced a separate batch of sanctions against what it described as the sale of "strategic material" being used "in connection with Iran’s nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs".

MJ/PA