They exert the most severe pressures on Iran in the pharmaceutical sector, which are even worse than the US' pressures, the tweet of the Iranian Embassy in France said.

According to Iran's Embassy Public Relations Department, Chairman of Iran-France Parliamentary Friendship Group Anne Genetet in a tweet called for “trust” between the two countries after calling for the release of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal who are detained in Iran on security charges.

Iran's Embassy responded in a tweet that trust is not one-way. Certain French entities put the severest pressures on Iran, even in the field of medicine, which is worse than the US' pressures.

The two countries' efforts should not be consumed, in the long-term, on transient issues caused by the third elements, the embassy said.

The French institutes' measures come as the trial operation of a humanitarian channel for the delivery of foodstuff and medicine to Iran, which does not trip over the US sanctions, has been recently put into effect.

In reaction, Zarif said in early February that the newly established humanitarian channel for the delivery of foodstuff and medicine to Iran cannot be translated as a sign of the US' goodwill for the Iranian nation.

As he elaborated, "according to the order of the International Court of Justice to the US, Americans are not allowed to impede imports of food and medicine into Iran; however, the US is still implementing its 'maximum pressure' campaign against Iranians and prevents the country from paying for its required medicine via restricting access to its own financial resources." 

"The new channel is a small step taken by the Swiss government," he said, "We hail the move but this is not proof for the US goodwill nor it is compliance to the order of International Court of Justice let alone the JCPOA."

Last Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said that the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism which allows drugs to be sent to Iran proved that the US is lying about avoiding sanctions on medicine.

"Despite the US false claims that the medicine and foodstuff are not included in sanctions, practically, they have closed all ways to banking transactions in this field," Mousavi wrote on his twitter page.

"Launching the so-called humanitarian channel to supply drugs officially confirmed that the claim was hollow and against the ICJ order, and medicine and food are sanctioned while they should not be," he added.