Tehran, SAEDNEWS: “A very important experience in this period (8-year-long presidency of Hassan Rouhani) that the future generations should use is distrust of the West,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing the last meeting with outgoing President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members in Tehran.
"In this government, it became clear that trust in the West does not work and they do not help, and they strike a blow wherever they can, and if they do not strike somewhere, it is because they cannot," he added.
"Domestic programs should no way be dependent on Western backup, because they will surely fail," Ayatollah Khamenei underlined.
Addressing President Rouhani and members of the government, Ayatollah Khamenei said, "Wherever you made things dependent on the West and negotiations with them and the US, you were unsuccessful, and wherever you moved without trusting the West and gave up pinning hope on them, you were successful and went ahead.”
He also referred to the recent Vienna talks, and expressed satisfaction with the efforts of diplomats and the good performance of some of them in these talks.
"In these talks, the Americans stood firm on their stubborn position and did not take a single step forward," the Leader said.
"The Americans say in words and promises that they will lift sanctions, but they did not remove the sanctions and will not lift them. They even set conditions and say that you should add a sentence to the current agreement that certain issues will be discussed later, or else there won't be any agreement."
"By including this sentence, they want to provide an excuse for their future meddling with missile and regional issues throughh the nuclear deal, and if Iran refuses to discuss them, they will say that we have violated the agreement and there will, hence, be no agreement," Ayatollah Khamenei said.
Emphasizing that the Americans’ behavior is completely cowardly and in a malicious manner, he added, "The US has no hesitation about violating its promises and undertakings, just as they once violated the agreement completely without any cost."
"Now that the Americans are being told to guarantee that they will not violate the agreement in the future, they say that they will not give guarantees," Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The US, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew participation in the agreement and re-imposed sanctions against Iran, which the accord had lifted.
The Trump administration subsequently launched what it touted as a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, hoping to force the Islamic Republic to accept large-scale limits on its nuclear program and missile work, among other things.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has verbally renounced that policy and admitted to its failure, while expressing a willingness to return to the Iran deal. However, it has so far stopped short of taking any concrete steps to that end and retained the sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
A senior political analyst said earlier this week that the negotiating team of US President Joe Biden is after an updated version of the nuclear deal with Iran, and called on Tehran to start using pressure levels against Washington to make it comply with its undertakings.
“The Biden team is looking for an updated version of the nuclear deal, of course, to increase the advantages for the US. It expects Iran to do even more than it agreed in 2015, but does not want to make concessions even as much as it did in 2015,” Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm said.
He added that the American side, specially since 2018 and withdrawal from the nuclear deal, has fortified sanctions wall by adding up multiple layers to the secondary nuclear sanctions in violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action paragraph 25, “which means that even if the nuclear sanctions are practically lifted, it will not affect our economy, but makes our economy hostage to the US formula”.
“In addition, the US wants assurances that Iran will immediately enter into regional and missile talks,” Khoshchesm said.
“Still there is no guarantee that the US will stay in compliance with its undertakings. The guarantee is in our own actions, i.e. the concessions that the US wants to receive from Iran, and this rule is true not only in Iran’s case but also in all international treaties. If the other side gives even 100% verbal and written assurances, keeping the leverages of pressure in our hands is necessary,” he added.
“We have to keep our pressure tools under a well-calculated plan,” Khoshcheshm said, adding, “This time we should display that we have learnt the lesson and never accept to lose these leverages. That is why in the Vienna talks, one of the conditions of the Iranian government is that the American side should first lift all sanctions and then Iran will verify them for a few months and then begin to fulfill its obligations.” (Source: FARS NEWS)
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