Iran supreme leader: There is no obstacle to negotiations with Washington but don’t trust them
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned his country’s government against trusting the United States, adding, “But there is no obstacle to negotiations with them”.
This came in a speech by Khamenei on Tuesday, during his meeting with the new government headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Iranian state television.
Khamenei welcomed the new government’s full confidence in parliament, adding that he recommended appointing some names specifically during his consultations with Pezeshkian when forming the government.
He stated that one of the priorities of the new government should be to solve the problem of high prices and inflation.
He added that solving economic problems shouldn’t be linked to negotiations with the West.
He said, “We don’t need to pin our hopes on the enemy, we shouldn’t wait for our enemies to approve our plans”.
He added, “Of course, this does not mean that we won’t interact with the enemy somewhere, but the problem lies in the fact that we shouldn’t trust him”.
In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group, the permanent members of the UN Security Council—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France—plus Germany, signed an agreement to regulate and monitor Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions.
Washington unilaterally withdrew from the deal under former President Donald Trump in 2018 and began re-imposing sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has since gradually halted its commitments to the deal and taken a series of steps, including resuming high-level uranium enrichment.
