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A top Iranian official has called on the United States to address Tehran with respect, not with a threat of war, a day after US President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Tehran on Twitter.

The war of words on Monday came as the semi-official Tasnim news agency announced Iran has, in line with an earlier decision, scaled back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. Economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran’,” Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.

“Never threaten an Iranian. Try respect – it works!” he added.

The riposte followed a Twitter post by Trump, who told Iran not to threaten the US.

“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again,” he wrote on Sunday, without clarifying what threats he meant. 

Trump doubled down on Monday, saying Iran would be met with “great force” if it attempted anything against US interests in the Middle East.

But while arguing that Tehran had been very hostile towards Washington, the US president told reporters as he departed the White House that he was still willing to have talks with Iran “when they’re ready”.

Hours later, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he favoured talks and diplomacy but not under the existing conditions.

“Today’s situation is not suitable for talks and our choice is resistance only” state news agency IRNA quoted Rouhani as saying.

Relations between Washington and Tehran plummeted a year ago when Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an international accord that offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Since exiting the landmark deal, Trump has tightened sanctions on Tehran and moved to cut its oil production to zero. 

Rouhani responded to the US moves earlier this month, saying his country would no longer observe limits the deal imposed on its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium.

Under the pact, Tehran was allowed to stockpile a maximum of 300kg of low-enriched uranium and was required to ship any excess out of the country for storage or sale.

— Al Jazeera