Iran took the statement by Secretary of Department of Treasury Steven Munchin with no surprise.
Many political observers and officials of other countries closely following up the developments of the US foreign policy under Donald Trump as the policies have been nothing more than knee-jerk reactions, such as breaching international conventions about globalization, withdrawal from UNESCO and the World Trade Organization.
It is a media hype style foreign policy in a bid to get out of the stalemate which was made when Washington pulled out of the Iran Deal, President Trump on Monday retaliated the shot-down of US Unmanned Areal Vehicle over Iranian territorial waters with new sanctions in another form trying to induce that it has imposed the harshest sanctions against Tehran.
He, then, signed the sanctions which were followed by the same rhetoric as in the past aimed at forcing Iran back at the negotiations to reach a comprehensive deal, saying "Iran will never be permitted to get nuclear weapons."
Sanctioning a diplomatic official, was received various reactions in and outside the US, with political observers describing the White House approach to Iran's foreign minister as an indication that Zarif is playing actively a role in confrontation with the governing team at the White House.
Some American officials, including Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has been criticizing the US media for setting the stage so that Zarif can continue revelation on hawkish associates of Trump since the foreign minister began uncovering and elaborating on warmongering goals of the so-called 'Team B'.
Zarif pursued its 'media diplomacy' more intensively to the extent that a number of US lawmakers and government officials pressured Trump to be careful about his advisers and his teammates at the White House. The president, however, has admitted several times that if he had listened to the Bolton-like people, they would have waged many wars all across the world.
Meanwhile, the approach of Iran's foreign policy has made the White House team endeavor to get out of the media pressure in the aftermath of shot-down of the drone by declaring sanctions on Iran's foreign minister.
This prompted some US media to criticize the double standard approach of the Trump team who are, on the one hand, speaking about no negotiations with Iran without preconditions, and on the other, they are sanctioning the chief Iranian official in charge of the country's foreign policy who will be the negotiator.
From their view, the spontaneous decisions which are far from prudence, made by the Trump team, have been the reason why the diplomacy window is closed, and Iran has set the condition of US come-back to the JCPOA for any talks with the US.
Jarrett Blanc, the State Department Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation under President Obama, believes that the new sanctions against Iran are symbolic, but the message is "more likely to lead to escalation than de-escalation".
From his view point, one message of the current policies of president Trump, which will be sent in the near future through announcing sanctions against Foreign Minister Zarif, is that the US is not serious about negotiation.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani questioned the US strategy as an indication of dishonesty of the White House, arguing that if the US officials are seeking negotiations, why are they sanctioning the foreign minister?
Impulsive behaviors and policies of the US president have even prompted the media in Washington to target the White House.
After the drone was shot down, Wall Street Journal wrote that the main problem of the Trump's policy is that it is not trustworthy.
The American media have previously said that key figures of Trump's administration such as Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been trying to wage war against Iran.
Other US media blamed the escalation with Iran on Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
CNN's Sam Kelley said that putting Iran's foreign minister's name on sanctions list abolishes the chance of any kind of diplomacy.
He described it as an attack against diplomatic ties despite the fact that the two countries do not have any official diplomatic ties.
Experts and observers believe that such a contradictory policy is nothing more than mocking diplomacy, and a confirmation on Trump's volatile administration.
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