"The French foreign minister lies that despite America's withdrawal from the JCPOA (nuclear deal) they have made considerable efforts to preserve the nuclear agreement," Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said at the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran.

"This financial channel you have made is completely deceitful," he said of the special payment system called INSTEX.

The mechanism was launched by Britain, France and Germany in late January after President Donald Trump in May 2018 abruptly quit the nuclear accord signed by Tehran and world powers.

The July 2015 accord signed in Vienna lifted sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's atomic programme.

London, Paris and Berlin said INSTEX was designed to save the deal by allowing Tehran to keep trading with European companies despite Washington reimposing sanctions.

Le Drian on Thursday called for Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to be released and warned Tehran that its adherence to a nuclear accord does not give Iran a blank cheque on human rights.

"We have been making considerable efforts in recent months to preserve the (Iranian) nuclear accord, despite America's withdrawal," said Le Drian.

"Our wish to preserve the Vienna accord does not grant carte-blanche to Iran and certainly not in the matter of human rights," he added.

In response, Khatami accused France itself of violating human rights.

"Be ashamed, you beat up and kill your people and still speak of human rights? Do you understand human rights? You are at the forefront of violating human rights," he said, apparently referring to France's "yellow vest" protests.

Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei already on Thursday rejected INSTEX as nothing more than a "bitter joke" and said that European countries could not be trusted.