Iran’s Khamenei warns against US ‘deceit’ in nuclear deal

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns against American “deceit” after Tehran finalized a landmark nuclear deal with world powers led by the United States.

In his first comments since the agreement was implemented, Khamenei stresses in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani the need to “guard against deceit and violations of arrogant states particularly the United States.”

The supreme leader, who had the final say on Tehran’s nuclear negotiations, welcomes the lifting of sanctions under the deal, but says it is “not enough for boosting the economy and improving people’s lives,” according to the letter published by the IRNA news agency.

Khamenei has never endorsed repairing relations with the US and has largely followed a similar tack to Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who dubbed America the “Great Satan.”

The nuclear deal saw an end to years of economic sanctions on Iran but Washington on Sunday announced new financial measures against Tehran’s ballistic missile programme.

Tehran decries the new measures as “illegitimate”.

–AFP