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As for the nuclear deal negotiated by the international community with Iran and signed under then-U.S. President Barack Obama in July 2015, Zarif said his country is \"entitled to take certain remedial measures and we did that.\" Over the weekend, the Iranian government announced it will no longer abide by any of the operational restraints on its nuclear program under the deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew the United States in May 2018.

\"As soon as Europe recognizes its own interest and decides to stand up for its own interest, we can reverse all of the measures we have taken,\" Zarif said. \"The deal is in a very difficult situation, but the deal can be maintained and must be maintained.\"

Zarif said the American government \"has been compounding mistake upon mistake,\" and that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo \"is a personification of [the] mixture of arrogance and ignorance.\"

\"The U.S. has already started paying for its crimes in Iraq, in the region and in Iran,\" Zarif said. \"I think before making more mistakes, before compounding the mistakes that they already have, the current U.S. regime has to acknowledge that they have adopted the wrong policy, that their policy was based on basically ignorance. Arrogance and ignorance when combined, it's [a] disaster, and this is what's happening in the United States.\"

\"PHOTO:
Altaf Qadri/AP
PHOTO: In this photo taken near the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 7, 2020, Indian Shiite Muslims burn a banner of U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest against the American drone strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
>

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran Monday for a day of mourning for Soleimani and in a show of support for the Iranian government. The crowds voiced anger at the U.S. drone strike and hailed the slain general as a national hero.

The crowds flocked to Soleimani's hometown of Kerman on Tuesday ahead of his burial, which was subsequently postponed due to a stampede that reportedly killed over 30 and injured nearly 200.

Soleimani was designated a terrorist by the Obama administration in 2011. As the powerful and elusive commander of the influential Quds Force in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for over 20 years, Soleimani had led its fighters in operations throughout the region, backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supporting Shiite militia groups in Iraq, including against U.S. troops during the Iraq War. The U.S. Department of State said Soleimani's forces are responsible for the deaths of over 600 American troops because of the kind of explosive devices they helped bring to Iraq.

The Trump administration has argued that Soleimani's death was critical to thwarting \"imminent attacks\" that the Iranian commander was helping to plot against U.S. personnel in the region. Pompeo has called Soleimani a \"bad guy\" and said the world is \"safer\" without him, given the hundreds of American soldiers whose deaths his forces are responsible for. The Trump administration, however, has provided no evidence of those imminent attacks.

\"PHOTO:
Cindy Smith/ABC News
PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, sits down for an interview with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 7, 2020.
>

\"We have nothing against the American people,\" the Iranian foreign minister said during Tuesday's interview with ABC News, adding that Soleimani \"did a lot to protect the American people and the rest of the world from the scourge of Daesh,\" using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

\"But their government is taking them into the abyss and they should take charge of their own destiny,\" he continued.

Zarif noted that \"Iran has never put U.S. civilians on its target list,\" indicating that his country's retaliation could be against U.S. military targets.

When asked if he had a message for U.S. President Donald Trump, Zarif said, \"He should stop going on this path, it will not help. Stop listening to arrogant, ignorant people.\"

Reporting by Martha Raddatz and Cindy Smith in Tehran, Iran. Writing by Morgan Winsor in London, England.

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