"They want to put pressure on the Iranian people to change their policy. That is the way the United States has acted for 40 years and, particularly since President [Donald] Trump came to office, it violated a commitment by another US president, President Obama," he told Aljazeera in a recent interview.
He said sanctions will not have any "political effect" and that Iran has prepared schemes with other countries to help protect its international trade.
"One of them will be in the long run to the detriment of the United States and I think that is becoming increasingly popular and that is not to use dollars for your transactions,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.
“Second is an instrument that we are developing with the Europeans, we have already developed with our neighbors and we have developed them with the Chinese and that is not to engage in transfer of money across the borders, which is where the United States would step in and try to twist the arms of people who are engaged in it, illegally and unlawfully."
The senior diplomat was referring to special trade mechanisms to match Iranian exports against its purchases from trading partners through barter systems.
Foreign Interests
According to Zarif, the US has been swayed by foreign interests.
"I believe the United States is not serving US interests. More than the United States, it is serving Israeli interests. And unfortunately, there are a couple of people in our region who have aligned themselves with Israeli interests," he said, listing the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed.
"So this is a cabal ... who are pushing the United States and President Trump into conflict and into disastrous situations and they will be the first to suffer the consequences, unfortunately."
Iran has also been accused of destabilizing the region and criticized for its involvement in countries such as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
The US recently accused Iran-allied militia groups of killing more than 600 of its soldiers during the Iraq war, which Zarif says is a "baseless lie", stating that Iran's priority is regional stability.