“Its long-term purpose is to bankrupt the country, the state, in words, to topple the economy.”
In addition to U.S. sanctions, Iran’s economy has been hit by falling oil prices as well as the coronavirus crisis. Iran has one of the death rates in the Middle East due to the pandemic.
Relations between Tehran and Washington have deteriorated since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump defected from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with six powers, which Tehran agreed to reduce its nuclear program in exchange for lifting top foreign sanctions.
Trump’s leadership has said it is willing to tell Iran “without preconditions” that the United States will continue its crusade of opposing tension.
Khamenei called the “main enemy” of American Iran and suggested the Iranians to American pressure. He ruled negotiations with Washington, saying Trump would use the talks for propaganda purposes, as he did with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“At the negotiating table, the United States needs us to absolutely abandon our nuclear industry, our defense functions and abandon our regional influence,” he said.
Since its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Washington has again imposed sanctions that have drastically reduced Tehran’s oil exports and imposed sanctions on the foreign banking system. He also emphasized that allies and rivals join them.
“This has led the country’s economy to naturally become less oil-dependent,” Khamenei said, putting progression in one light.
Iran then responded to the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement by slowly abandoning almost all facets of the agreement, still allowing UN inspectors to access its nuclear sites.
The United States has pursued a “maximum pressure” policy aimed at forcing Tehran to negotiate a broader agreement that limits its nuclear work, ends its missile program, and supports power forces in a regional force struggle with US-backed Gulf countries.
“There is no doubt that sanctions are a crime,” Khamenei said.
“But the intelligent Iranian made the most productive use of this attack, this animosity and took advantage of itArray … sanctions as a means to expand national self-sufficiency.”
Khamenei said that “Western think tanks admit that the highest (political) tension of SANCIONES and U.S. strength has been successful.”
He also accused European partners in the nuclear deal of “doing nothing” to provide Iran with the economic benefits of the deal and said its barter formula designed to evade US sanctions is an “unnecessary toy.”
The system, called Instex, is intended to function as a means of exchange and allow European corporations to deliver medical materials to Iran that is exposed to sanctions.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany announced that they had completed the first transaction of the mechanism at the end of June, more than a year and a part after its creation.