No Nuclear Deal without Termination of Sanctions: Leader
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution underlined that anti-Iran sanctions must be terminated, rather than suspended, under a nuclear deal whose text was finalized in July, stressing that Iran would not accept any deal that does not include the lifting of the sanctions.
“If the sanctions are not going to be removed, then there will be no deal,” Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said in a Thursday meeting with members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in Tehran.
The Leader said that certain concessions made on some cases in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers were mainly aimed at the termination of sanctions.
Otherwise, there was no necessity for taking part in the negotiations, Ayatollah Khamenei stated, adding that the country could go on and triple the number of its centrifuges to 60000, keep enriching uranium to 20%, and accelerate its Research and Development (R&D).
The Leader further emphasized that if the sanctions are going to be suspended, then Iran’s commitments would also be limited to the level of suspension.
“We insisted (since the beginning of the negotiations) that sanctions ought to be lifted, not suspended,” Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14 reached a conclusion on a lasting nuclear agreement that would terminate all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program after coming into force.
The 159-page deal has its own opponents and proponents both in Iran and the other countries that are parties to the JCPOA, including the US.
While the United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution to endorse the deal, the text of the document needs to be reviewed by both Iran and the US Congress.
