In a telephone conversation on Monday, Zarif and Gordan Grlic-Radman, the foreign minister of Croatia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, held talks on a range of issues, including the outbreak of the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19, in Iran and other countries.
The Croatian top diplomat expressed his country's solidarity and sympathy with the Iranian people and government over the deaths of victims of the infectious disease.
Zarif, for his part, pointed to the US sanctions hampering Iran's camping against the coronavirus and said the EU should not comply with the US unilateral and unlawful embargoes not only because of its obligation under the 2015 nuclear deal but also due to humanitarian reasons.
Medical staffs in all 31 provinces of Iran have been working tirelessly over the past weeks to contain the novel coronavirus.
First detected in Wuhan city in central China in December, the virus has spread to more than 140 countries.
More than 182,000 have been infected globally, according to the WHO. Of those, about 80,000 have recovered.