“I did not believe much in the way the JCPOA was negotiated and materialized,” Khamenei told several hundred students who gathered at his residence in Tehran.
“And on many occasions, I told this to the officials in charge of the issue including Mr President and the respected Foreign Minister and warned them about many issues.”
President Hassan Rouhani is under extreme pressure from hardliners to take a more aggressive posture against the deal’s remaining European signatories to do more to alleviate the hardships caused by US sanctions.
Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal in May last year, ending the sanctions relief Iran had enjoyed since submitting to intrusive inspections by UN inspectors.
The US has made it clear it does not intend to ease the pressure on Iran as it deploys more troops and military hardware to the Persian Gulf.
It aims to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero unless Tehran stops its malign activities in the region and comes to the negotiating table.
Khamenei seems to be backtracking on his initial support for the nuclear deal in response to growing popular discontent inside the country as economic sanctions take their toll on Iranian households.
Khamanei, who has the ultimate say in all policy matters, said he wrote a letter in October 2015 setting out the conditions under which the JCPOA should have been ratified.
“Of course if the conditions… are not implemented and observed, it is not the duty of the leader to intervene and say the JCPOA should not be ratified,” Khamenei said, seeking to absolve himself of blame.
Since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and re-imposed sanctions, a war of words has broken out between the hardliners and Rouhani’s government about the wisdom of signing up to the nuclear deal in the first place.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other hardliners have been very vocal about the “untrustworthiness” of the West, arguing Iran should never have agreed to such terms.
Khamenei’s words will likely weaken Rouhani’s position against the IRGC.
The US designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization last month. As the Guards are tightly bound up in the economy, this makes it even harder for Iran to attract foreign investment – harming the Guards’ income.
Strange though the timing might seem, Rouhani gave a speech of his own on Wednesday telling a group of economists the military establishment would be taking a step back from the economy.
“Fortunately, the esteemed Supreme Leader has agreed with the military sides to step back from the economy,” Rouhani said, without elaborating further.
The IRGC is considered the biggest player in the Iranian economy, with a hand in the construction, dam building, infrastructure, oil, and gas. Rouhani’s words will no doubt cause a stir among the IRGC leadership.
Khamenei hopes to strike a balance between his top Guards, essential to the survival of the Islamic revolution, and the government, which represents Iran internationally.
Rouhani’s government has become increasingly isolated as its oil buyers abandon Tehran one after another. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Turkey stopped buying Iranian oil in May, succumbing to American pressure.
Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign means any country buying Iranian oil could be subject to economic sanctions.
Kayvan Khosravi, spokesperson for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, wrote a short note for the government-run IRNA news agency on Thursday in which he ruled out negotiation with the US, but also indicated efforts to mediate are taking place behind closed doors.
“The travel of officials of different countries to Iran has increased. Mostly they are representing America. Some [of these trips] are publicized in the media and others are kept confidential,” wrote Khosravi.
As long as there are no practical steps by the European partners to alleviate sanctions pressure on Iran, “there will be no negotiation at all.”
Updated 3.12 p.m.
