During his trip to New York to continue another round of nuclear talks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made controversial remarks about political prisoners in Iran. An online backlash forced him to respond on his Facebook page.

In an April 28 interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, Zarif said, “We do not jail people for their opinions. The government has a plan to improve, enhance human rights in the country. As every government should. And I believe we have an obligation as a government to our own people to do that. But people who commit crimes, who violate the laws of the country, cannot hide by being a journalist, being a political activist. People have to observe the law.”

The comment was a response to Rose’s question about imprisoned Iranian-American Washington Post Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian. Rezaian was arrested last July along with his wife, who has since been released. He has been charged with endangering national security and espionage. Zarif also answered questions about Rezaian while speaking at New York University April 29, saying, “Some overzealous low-level operative” may have attempted to “take advantage” of him.

His comments, especially those to Rose, angered many Iranians online. Some shared memes and posters on their social media pages of Iranian political prisoners accompanied with Zarif’s comment, “We do not jail people for their opinions.” Others compared the popular foreign minister, who was greeted as a hero at Mehrabad International Airport after the signing of the Lausanne nuclear framework deal, to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said in an 2011 interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, “There are no political prisoners in Iran.”