On Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with outgoing President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members at the 12th cabinet meeting. During the meeting, he commented on the stalled negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The Supreme Leader held the US responsible for the nuclear talks reaching an impasse.
Stating that Washington’s “stubborn” requests would not be approved by Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the US behaved completely cowardly and maliciously. “They once violated the nuclear deal at no cost by exiting it. Now they explicitly say that they cannot give guarantees that it would not happen again,” the Supreme Leader said.
According to the Iranian media, Ayatollah Khamenei accused the US and its Western partners of being unreliable. Stating that the only thing the Rouhani government experienced in negotiations with the US and Western countries was the reality that they are not reliable, the Supreme Leader said, “The West and the US are totally unjust and malicious in their negotiations. They have no hesitation in breaching their commitments at all.”
Khamenei also stated that the US has not taken any step so far to halt the existing sanctions imposed on Iran, although they promised to do so, and that he does not expect that they will.
Another disagreement between the two sides is that Washington insisted on revising the existing nuclear deal, which Tehran categorically opposed. “By doing this, they want to provide an excuse for their further interventions on the nuclear deal and Iran’s missile work and regional issues… Then, if we refuse to discuss those issues, Americans will accuse Iran of violating the nuclear deal, and they will say the agreement is over.”
Similar remarks came by Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, Kazem Gharib Abadi. Speaking to Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website, the Iranian high-level diplomat stated that his country would not allow any irrelevant issues to be included in the nuclear talks.
Iran and P5+1 countries have engaged in talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal since April. However, significant gaps which need to be resolved are still on the table to reinstate the deal, both Iranian and Western officials said.
