“They [Americans] though they could force Iran to soften [its position] if they exerted their maximum pressure policy,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on Wednesday.
“With God Almighty’s help, they have now realized that the ‘maximum pressure’ has only troubled themselves,” he added.
The Leader said that having failed to make Iran surrender, the Americans moved to arrange a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which they needed as “a symbol of Iranian submission” to pressure.
He said the Americans even went as far as “begging and sought the mediation of their European friends,” but they failed to secure such a meeting and will continue to fail.
Ayatollah Khamenei described the US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports as a “short-term problem” facing the country, which could generate “long-term benefits” – by cutting reliance on oil revenues – if proper steps are taken to deal with the issue.
He made it clear that Iran will continue to reduce the implementation of its commitment within the nuclear deal, and asserted, “Concerning the JCPOA, we will seriously continue to reduce our commitments; the [Iranian] Atomic Energy Organization is responsible here, and should carefully and completely enact all the reduction of commitments that the Islamic Republic has declared, until we reach the desired results. We will surely achieve our desired goals, by God’s grace.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader said the enemies, especially America, have failed to achieve their plots in regional countries despite spending huge sums of money there.
“They created ISIL at hefty costs and provided it with weapons as well as financial and media support, and now that Daesh has been destroyed thanks to the diligence of youths in Syria, Iraq and Iran, they tell lies [by claiming] that ‘We destroyed ISIL,’” he said.
President Donald Trump himself admitted that the US has spent $7 trillion in the region, and received nothing but damage and defeat in return, he added.
MNA/FNA13980710000423
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