Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advised the government last July not to rely on European efforts to protect Tehran against U.S. sanctions, months after Washington withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed penalties.
The release of Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech nine months after his meeting with the Cabinet showed that while President Hassan Rouhani was trying to save the nuclear deal with European powers, who remained committed despite the U.S. exit, Ayatollah Khamenei was not optimistic about the efforts.
The Europeans would naturally say they are protecting Iranian interests with their package “but (the Iranian government) should not make this a main issue,” Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted as saying by his official website on Monday.
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Ayatollah Khamenei said that the 2015 deal did not resolve any of economic problems of Iran, and predicted that the mechanism proposed by Europeans to shield business with Iran against the U.S. sanctions would not also be a solution to economic hardship.