TEHRAN – Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has hit back at the U.S. envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, who claimed that Iran had withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The foreign Iranian foreign minister said the U.S. envoy is trying to rewrite the recent history of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

“@USEnvoyIran is exploiting the change of administration in Iran & ‘memory lapse’ of E3/EU to rewrite recent history. Iran never left to do a ‘mutual return to JCPOA.’ The US did,” Zarif said on Twitter. 

The former top Iranian diplomat was responding to a recent tweet by Malley in which he called for mutual return by Tehran and Washington to the JCPOA. 

“Met with the E3 political directors and senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, and the GCC to discuss 2 paths open to Iran: continued nuclear escalation & crisis, or mutual return to the JCPOA, creating opportunities for regional economic & diplomatic ties. Time to choose is short,” Malley said on Twitter. 

However, Zarif suggested that Iran is still honoring its commitments under the nuclear deal while the U.S. and the European signatories to it have failed to implement the deal.