Leader: Bullying powers’ insistence on talks aimed at imposing own demands
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the insistence of some bullying powers on negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program is aimed at imposing their demands, stressing that the Islamic Republic will not accept their expectations.
Addressing a number of Iranian officials in Tehran on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The insistence of some bullying governments on negotiations is not aimed at resolving issues, but rather [aims] to assert and impose their own expectations,” he said.
“Definitely, the Islamic Republic will not accept their expectations,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader also hit back at the criticisms leveled by the European parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which have claimed that the Islamic Republic has not fulfilled its nuclear commitments, saying, “You say that Iran has not fulfilled its nuclear commitments. Well, did you fulfill yours? You did not comply [with your obligations] from the very beginning.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said that after the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018, Europeans vowed to compensate but repeatedly broke their promises.
Before the Leader’s speech, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also addressed the meeting and called for unity among officials to overcome problems facing the country.
He said that the country is able to overcome all problems caused by sanctions, stressing that no power can defeat a “united country.”
“We must not give in to the enemy’s threats,” he underlined.
In 2015, Iran reached a nuclear deal with Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and China, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US quit the agreement in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as US president, and Iran began moving away from its nuclear-related commitments under the deal.
The US unilateral withdrawal from the agreement and re-imposition of sanctions removed under the deal left the future of the JCPOA in limbo.
However, Iran has been trying to revive the JCPOA during the past years and has held several rounds of talks with the European parties to the deal, which their non-compliance to the agreement had a great impact on the implementation of the agreement.
In recent months, the US president has repeatedly expressed his interest to reach an agreement with Iran.
However, his language of threats and imposition of sanctions against Iran have made Iranian officials skeptical of negotiations with the US administration.
Trump last month restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran which includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero.