In regards to a nuclear agreement with the West, Khamenei sees “nothing wrong.”
The Supreme Leader of Iran has hinted at a possible thaw in relations provided the country is able to maintain its nuclear sector.
Following months of failed talks between Tehran and Washington to resuscitate a nuclear bargain from 2015, Iran’s supreme leader stated on Sunday that a compromise with the West over Tehran’s nuclear activities was conceivable if the country’s nuclear infrastructure remained intact.
The nuclear agreement with six major powers has been in limbo since September, despite months of indirect discussions between Tehran and Washington. Each side has blamed the other for making excessive demands.
Days after both Tehran and Washington refuted a report that they were near an interim deal under which Tehran would curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given his cautious approval.
According to state media, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei added, “There is nothing wrong with the agreement (with the West), but the infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched.”
Iran started breaking the provisions of the deal this year after the United States withdrew from it in 2018 under President Trump.
In exchange for easing international sanctions, the 2015 agreement restricted Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts, making it more difficult for Tehran to create nuclear weapons.
U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement in 2018, reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy and raising worries in the United States, Europe, and Israel that Tehran is working toward developing a nuclear weapon.
Khamenei repeated Iran’s official position, which it has maintained for years, that it has never aspired to develop nuclear weapons.
The claims that Tehran is actively working to develop nuclear weapons are completely false. As a result of our moral convictions, we reject the use of nuclear weapons. Khamenei remarked that if it weren’t for that, the West wouldn’t have been able to halt it.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, or Khamenei, has stated that the country’s nuclear officials should maintain cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog “under the framework of safeguards.”
Some monitoring equipment installed under the 2015 accord and ordered removed by Tehran last year was reinstalled last month, while the International Atomic Energy Agency reported limited progress over disputed problems with Iran last month.
