Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:♦ Khamenei offers seven conditions for staying in nuclear pact♦ Says Europe must shield Iran oil sales from US pressure
Iran’s Supreme leader fired a fresh broadside at Washington’s rejection of a nuclear agreement with Tehran, saying its action showed the Islamic Republic could not deal with a country that did not keep its commitments.
In his first public remarks since US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded Iran make sweeping policy changes, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed revulsion at what he suggested was the casual and boastful way the Trump administration had abandoned the accord.
“The Islamic Republic cannot deal with a government that easily violates an international treaty, withdraws its signature and in a theatrical show brags about its withdrawal on television,” he said in excepts of his remarks posted on his official website on Wednesday.
Listing what he called his experiences of US government behaviour towards Tehran over the decades, Khamenei said: “The first experience is that the Islamic Republic cannot deal with America. Why? Because America is not loyal to its commitments.”
“Iran was committed to the deal. They (the Americans) have no excuse. International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly verified Iran’s commitment. But you see they (Americans) easily cancel this international agreement.”
“The current US president will meet the same fate as his predecessors, Bush and the neoconservatives and Reagan, and will vanish from history,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump and previous US presidents.
Khamenei also set out a series of conditions for European powers if they want Tehran to stay in a nuclear deal after the US exit, including steps to safeguard trade with Tehran and guarantee Iranian oil sales.
US President Donald Trump pulled out earlier this month from the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear programme, calling it deeply flawed. European powers see the international accord as the best chance of stopping Tehran developing a nuclear weapon and have intensified efforts to salvage it.
“European banks should safeguard trade with the Islamic Republic. We do not want to start a fight with these three countries (France, Germany and Britain) but we don’t trust them either,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, issuing conditions for saving the nuclear pact on his website.
He also stipulated European powers must protect Iranian oil sales from US plans to scuttle them by reimposing global sanctions on Tehran, and to continue buying Iranian crude.
