PHOTO: Iran’s Supreme Leader on Tuesday “Misconception that we can come to terms with US”
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Stepping up his warnings to the US, the Supreme Leader has said that Iran is ready to “burn” the July 2015 nuclear deal if a new American President abandons the agreement.
Ayatollah Khamenei spoke to an audience of senior officials, including President Rouhani, on Tuesday. He continued his series of accusations of dishonesty and plotting by the US, despite January’s implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action:
The agenda of the enemy today is to stop or eliminate the capabilities of the Islamic Republic or at least to prevent their growth….
I have repeatedly reiterated that the country must grow in power and that we must promote our potentialities.
Khamenei then warned:
We don’t violate JCPOA, but if other side violates it, as US presidential candidates are threatening to tear it apart, we’ll set fire to it.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 14, 2016
Republican candidate Donald Trump has said that he will not adhere to the deal, which was reached after more than a decade of dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. The Democrats’ Hillary Clinton supported the Obama Administration’s pursuit of the accord, including as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
Khamenei’s comments came as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Oslo, Finland to discuss the status of the JCPOA.
Despite his endorsement of negotiations — primarily because of the threat to the Iranian economy, in part because of US-led sanctions — the Supreme Leader has insisted that these must not lead to further links with the US. He has ruled out any cooperation with the Americans over regional crises, including the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and the fight against the Islamic State.
U.S. hostility towards us is because of existence of the Islamic Republic & cannot be solved through negotiation.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 14, 2016
Khamenei’s assertive position has checked the foreign policy of President Rouhani, who has promoted “engagement”, even with long-time Iranian rivals. The Supreme Leader has specifically rebuked Rouhani for saying that the JCPOA must be followed by a “JCPOA 2” for economic recovery amid the removal of US-led sanctions.
Khamenei has instead promoted the idea of self-sufficiency through a “Resistance Economy”.
The Supreme Leader has been bolstered by the long process of lifting the American financial and economic restrictions. International companies, particularly in Europe, are wary of renewing trade and investment in Tehran because of the threat of US punishment.
Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry met European political and corporate leaders last month to assure that business could be renewed, but many firms remain cautious.
The US has also imposed new sanctions on Iran over ballistic missile testing, which Washington maintains is a violation of a UN resolution passed at the time of the nuclear deal. The US Supreme Court added another complication last month when it said up to $2 billion of Iranian assets can remain frozen, as families of the victims of terrorism seek judicial compensation.
Khamenei chided on Tuesday:
Under the JCPOA, the other side was duty-bound to lift the sanctions which it has not done. The banking issues have not been solved. The issue of the insurance of oil tankers is implemented at a limited level.
The oil payments and our assets which we have in other countries are not returned to us.
He concluded, “[It is a] misconception that we can come to terms with the US. We cannot rely on illusions.”
Rouhani: We Upheld Rights in Nuclear Negotiations”
Rouhani avoided any public clash with Khamenei, telling the officials:
In these negotiations, we reserved Iranian nation’s rights and the unjust sanctions were abolished….We have nearly reached the pre-sanctions conditions.”
The President focused on the economic situation, hailing a rise in non-oil exports and the creation of 1.4 million jobs and promising single-digit inflation by next month.
Rouhani inherited an inflation rate of more than 40% in August 2013. It is now about 12%.
Detained British-Iranian National Accused of Trying to Overthrow Regime
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a detained British-Iranian national, has been accused by the Revolutionary Guards of seeking to “overthrow the regime”.
The Mizan news agency put out a Guards statement declaring Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was “involved in the soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic through…her membership in foreign companies and institutions”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained at the airport on April 3 as she was returning to the UK. She was later transferred to an unknown location in Kerman Province, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tehran, and held in solitary confinement.
Her 22-month-old daughter was left with her grandparents in Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has not had access to a lawyer or her daughter, and has not been able to speak to her husband in Britain.
