Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has on Sunday said that the country does not believe the United States’ promises over lifting sanctions.
Khamenei said, “We trusted America at the time of Barack Obama and fulfilled our commitments. But they didn’t. The Americans said on paper that sanctions will be lifted, but they didn’t lift sanctions in practice,” Khamenei said in his speech.
“Their promises have no credibility for us,” he added.
“On paper, they said the sanctions were lifted but they told any company that wanted to sign a contract with us that this was dangerous and risky. They scared away investors.”
He further added, “The Americans must lift all sanctions. We will verify it and if sanctions are … really cancelled, we will return to our obligations without any problems.”
“We have a lot of patience and we are not in a hurry,” said the Iranian leader.
Note that the 2015 Nuclear Deal was signed by Iran with major world powers but had later discontinued by former US President Donald Trump in 2018 as he reimposed sanctions on Iran.
However, the newly-elected US President Biden’s administration is searching for ways to restore the 2015 deal.