The path of interaction and negotiation with any country other than the US and the Zionist regime of Israel is not closed, Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a meeting with the members of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran on Thursday.
“However, the countries holding the flag of hostility toward the Islamic Republic, above all the US and several European countries, should not be trusted at all because they openly take hostile acts against the Iranian people,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader further emphasized that the motives behind Europeans’ animosity against the Islamic Republic are not fundamentally different from those of the US’.
“On the surface, Europeans appear as mediators and hold long talks but they are all empty words,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
Referring to Europe’s performance after the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 and its failure to live up to its promises after the US withdrawal from the accord and its cruel sanctions, the Leader said, “Despite their promises, the Europeans have practically adhered to the US sanctions.”
“They did not take any action and are unlikely to do anything for the Islamic Republic anymore, therefore, hopes for the Europeans (to do anything) should be abandoned,” Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the JCPOA.
The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the deal.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.
Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi recently said that the country’s enriched uranium stockpile has reached 360 to 370 kilograms.
