MNA - Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said on Thu. that the United States must show respect for the Iranian nation instead of further humiliating itself.

In a reaction to the claim of a US official, he wrote in a tweet on Thu. night, “we do shatter your max pressure campaign with maximum resistance, stiffening resolve and reliance on the national capabilities.”

Earlier in an interview, US Special Representative for Iran’s Affairs Brian Hook had claimed that Islamic Republic of Iran should choose either negotiating with the United States or managing a collapsing economy.

“It is you who face a choice: either admit defeat and start respecting the Iranian Nation or further keep being hated, humiliating and isolating yourselves,” Mousavi tweeted.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the multilateral Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in defiance of global criticism.

Ever since withdrawing from the agreement, Washington has launched a so-called maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, seeking to pressure it with a growing list of widespread sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hook raised such baseless remarks just a few months remaining to US 2020 Presidential Election, believing that negotiating with Iran could be a Trump card for the US president.

In a move that indicated failure of Trump administration’s maximum pressure, Islamic Republic of Iran sent five tankers, carrying fuel and refinery equipment, to Venezuela to compensate the severe shortage of fuel due to US sanctions imposed against this Bolivarian country.

The Trump administration's threats to impose sanctions on Iranian tankers came as four of Iran's five fuel tankers have entered the Venezuelan Special Economic Zone and are now being protected by Venezuelan armed forces.