The remarks came in Brussels when lawmakers criticized the increasing number of death sentences in Iran.
Zarif also blamed Europe for their “lack of support” to help Iran control the flow of drugs to European countries.
“The European Union has accused Iran of human rights violations and banned the export of technical tools that would be used to combat the drug trade,” Zarif told European lawmakers, according to BBC Persian.
The number of executions in Iran has sharply increased in recent years. At least 687 people were put to death in 2013, compared to 99 people in 2004.
Human rights activists worry that the nuclear deal with Iran and the country’s increasing economic and trade relations with Europe may take the spotlight off its human rights record.
In a report in late 2015 the UN General Assembly condemned the human rights situation in Iran.
The report indicated that execution rates in Iran have rapidly increased and that 694 people were executed in Iran in 2015.
This is the highest number of executions in the country since the Iran-Iraq War, Ahmed Shaheed, the special UN rapporteur for human rights in Iran, told Rudaw at that time.
