Khamenei says Iran’s future should not be tied to nuclear talks with world powers

DUBAI, April 12 (Reuters) – Iran’s supreme chief stated on Tuesday that his nation’s future shouldn’t be tied to the success or collapse of nuclear talks with world powers, Iranian state media reported, including that the negotiations to revive a 2015 nuclear deal “are progressing nicely”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state issues akin to Iran’s nuclear programme, made the feedback a few month after virtually a yr of oblique talks between Iran and america stalled. Each international locations blame one another for lack of “political will” to settle remaining points.

“Completely don’t await nuclear negotiations in planning for the nation and transfer ahead,” Khamenei informed a gathering of senior officers, state TV reported.

“Don’t let your work be disrupted whether or not the negotiations attain optimistic or semi-positive or unfavorable outcomes.”

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump left the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions which have crippled Iran’s financial system. A yr later, Iran began to violate the boundaries imposed on its nuclear programme by the 2015 settlement to make it more durable to develop a bomb. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceable use solely.

“The US broke its guarantees (by exiting the deal) and now they’ve reached a useless finish whereas Iran isn’t in such a state of affairs,” Khamenei stated, whereas calling on Iran’s nuclear negotiators to proceed “resisting America’s extreme calls for”.

One of many unresolved points is whether or not Washington would take away Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the U.S. International Terrorist Group (FTO) checklist, as demanded by Tehran to ensure that the deal to be revived.

Critics of dropping the IRGC from the checklist, in addition to these open to the concept, say doing so can have little financial impact as a result of different U.S. sanctions pressure overseas actors to shun the group. learn extra

The IRGC, created by the Islamic Republic’s late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is greater than only a navy pressure and has huge political clout. It was positioned beneath sanctions in 2017 and placed on the FTO checklist in April of 2019.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults in america, the IRGC was sanctioned as a “specifically designated world terrorist” (SDGT) on a separate U.S. checklist.

Writing by Parisa Hafezi
Enhancing by William Maclean and Grant McCool

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