ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – There is no guarantee that the United States will abide by its commitments in future negotiations, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in his last meeting with outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet.
“Administrations should utterly avoid tying their plans to negotiations with the West, for they’ll certainly fail. This administration too, wherever it relied on negotiations with the West & the US, they were unsuccessful, & when they relied on domestic potential, they succeeded,” Khamenei said during his speech.
The West and the US are “unjust and malicious” in their negotiations, he added.
“They have no hesitation in breaching their commitments at all. In the previous agreement, they breached their commitments and they give no guarantee they will abide by their commitments in the future either.”
Iran is party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement, signed under Rouhani in 2015, with Iran handed nuclear restrictions in exchange for the US and other countries party to the deal lifting sanctions on the country.
Negotiations between the remaining signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal – Iran, Russia, China, the UK, France, and Germany – began in early April in Vienna to find a route for the United States to rejoin after former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, and began a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions in a bid to force Tehran to make a new deal that would also address its ballistic missile program and regional activities.
Under the sanctions, Iran has steadily walked back on its nuclear commitments and is now enriching uranium at 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit set in the agreement. Rouhani has said they could go as far as 90 percent uranium enrichment, adding that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Iran has always denied it wants to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Iran has said it would return to its commitments under the deal, but only in exchange for a full lift on US sanctions.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in June it will be difficult to revive the Iranian nuclear deal if Tehran continues to walk back from its obligations under the accord. Iran, which never left the agreement, has demanded the US take the first step and lift all sanctions.
Talks to revive the nuclear deal are on hold until after the administration of newly-elected President Ebrahim Raisi takes office in August 5.
Earlier this month, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the US, which is indirectly engaged in the talks, is ready to return to the negotiation table.
The US and Rouhani does not seem to be pleased with the delay. “The opportunity of the twelfth cabinet to reach a deal was taken away, however we hope that the thirteenth cabinet can complete the work,” Rouhani told his cabinet, apologizing for not reaching a deal in the past months.
“We are conscious that as time proceeds, Iran’s nuclear advances will have a bearing on our view of ultimately returning to the JCPOA,” Price said.
While Iran holds elections for the presidential position and parliament, the ultimate decision is eventually made by Khamenei.
“In the recent nuclear talks, the Americans staunchly insisted on their obstinate stance. When making promises and on paper they say they’ll remove sanctions, but in practice they didn’t and won’t. Then they say new articles should be added to the deal that already exists,” he said on Wednesday.
