DUBAI, February 7. /TASS/. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated it would be "unwise and dishonorable" to hold talks with the United States after Washington betrayed Tehran on the nuclear deal.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum reinstating maximum pressure on Iran. In particular, the document calls for intensifying Washington’s efforts to undermine Iran’s oil industry. However, Trump did not rule out a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and said that he would like to make a "historic deal" with Iran.
"[In 2015,] we signed a deal with the United States, <…> made multiple concessions to the counterparty. However, the Americans never fulfilled the terms of the agreement. And the very person who is in power now (Trump - TASS) withdrew from the treaty," Khamenei explained, adding that the Obama administration, which signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), did not adhere to it either.
"While the pact promised lifting sanctions on Iran, those were never lifted. No talks can be held with such a government. Talking [to them] is unwise and dishonorable," Khamenei’s press service quoted the supreme leader as saying at a meeting with Iran Air Force and Air Defense Force commanders.
The tasks facing the country can only be resolved through government work, and not a single problem can be handled through talks with America, Khamenei insisted.
The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed by the Islamic Republic, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States, and France), and Germany in 2015 to resolve the crisis surrounding the country’s nuclear program. The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018 during Trump’s first presidency and re-imposed all sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the deal.
In response, Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, passed the "Strategic Action Law to Lift Sanctions and Safeguard the National Interests of Iran" in 2020. In line with that, Tehran departed from a number of commitments under the nuclear deal and blocked International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors from accessing its nuclear sites on missions not covered by the agreement on NPT guarantees between the global nuclear body and Iran. Tehran believes that the West should return to fully honoring the JCPOA before it can restore its control over Tehran’s nuclear program.