Trump has repeated his offer of negotiations with Tehran without any preconditions in recent weeks, all the while tightening the noose around Iranian economy and threatening the Islamic Republic with “overwhelming power” and “obliteration”.
“When the enemy has not been able to achieve its objective with pressure, it offers negotiation on the assumption that Iranian people are gullible and claims that Iranian people should progress,” Khamenei said Wednesday morning, according to his official website.
“For sure this nation will progress, but without you and on the condition that you don’t come near.”
In a meeting with judicial officials, Khamenei said the US offer of negotiations is a “deception” and the real objective of the US is “to disarm the people and to eliminate the causes of Iran’s authority” in order to do what they like with the people of Iran.
“The graceful Iranian nation has been accused and insulted by the world’s most vicious regime, the US, which is a source of wars, conflicts, and plunder. The Iranian nation won’t give in to such insults. Iranians have been wronged by oppressive sanctions but are not weakened and will remain powerful,” Khamenei added.
His comments appear to come in response to the latest round of US sanctions which specifically targeted him, his office, and several top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), some of whom were involved in the downing of the a US Navy reconnaissance drone last Thursday.
Iran’s foreign ministry said the latest round of sanctions mark “a permanent closure of the path to diplomacy”.
On Tuesday, Trump also sent a series of tweets in which he said “any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas overwhelming will mean obliteration”.
The US wants to deprive Iran of oil revenues to pressure the government in Tehran to come to the negotiating table. There are reports that Iran’s oil exports have dropped from around 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in April 2018, one month before the US withdrew from the nuclear deal, to around 300,000 bpd in June.
The drop in Iran oil exports follows the US decision to revoke waivers granted to eight major importers of Iranian oil when the US re-imposed sanctions following its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as Iran nuclear deal.
However, Iran flatly rejects claims its oil exports have dropped. Iran’s central bank chief Abdulnaser Hemmati said Wednesday that Iran’s currency market is stable and that oil exports are actually rising despite US sanctions.
Sanctions pressure and a series of mysterious attacks on oil tankers, followed by the downing of the US Navy drone, have raised tensions in the region.
One of the few opportunities left open to defuse the situation is the possibility of European countries agreeing to a financial mechanism, INSTEX, which would allow Iran to trade with European markets while sidestepping US sanctions.
“We have heard this from the Europeans for some time. There have been sessions to make INSTEX operational and we insist that in this transaction financial resources should be exchanged,” Hemmati said.
“One way is if they [European countries] buy oil from us but they said they have difficulties in this regard.”
Iran says it has no option but to resist the Americans sanctions and has already threatened to further suspend its commitments under the JCPOA in the coming days if EU countries fail to ease the economic pressure on Iran.
