Iran’s Khamenei hits out at ‘stubborn’ US amid stalled nuclear talks

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader calls the US “stubborn” in stalled nuclear talks in Vienna for discussing Tehran’s missiles and regional influence, likely signaling challenges ahead in efforts to revive its tattered atomic accord with world powers.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks come as his hardline protégé, President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, is poised to be sworn in next week as the head of the country’s civilian government.

While Raisi has said he wants to return to the deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, Khamenei seemingly calls for a more adversarial approach in his remarks. He also appears to describe outgoing President Hassan Rouhani’s eight-year government as naive for its approach in reaching the 2015 agreement as its officials sat before him.

“Others should use your experiences. This experience is a distrust of the West,” Khamenei says in remarks broadcast by state television. “In this government, it was shown up that trust in the West does not work.”

He adds: “Westerners do not help us, they hit wherever they can.”

The US State Department doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Biden administration days earlier criticized Iran for saying America had delayed a possible prisoner-swap deal, calling it “an outrageous effort to deflect blame for the current impasse.”

In his remarks today, Khamenei describes American negotiators as verbally promising to lift sanctions, but says any return to the nuclear deal must “include a sentence” on negotiating on other issues.

“By putting this sentence, they want to provide an excuse for their further interventions on the principle of (the deal) and missile program and regional issues,” the leader says. “If Iran refuses to discuss them, they will say that you have violated the agreement and the agreement is over.”