Foreign Minister Javad Zarif opined that the Europeans "might not be prepared, and surely lack enough power to resist the U.S. sanctions. They made some efforts, but... their efforts were not sufficient". "We continued to work with the Europeans in the diplomatic dimension, and we will continue to do so; however we never placed our hope on Europe", Zarif added. "In particular after the U.S. left the JCPOA, we have focused our attention on the countries that are close to us and have sided with us; if I want to avoid the term 'friend', I'd say they have been cooperative with us".